Ten Fundamental 
Doctrines 



By 

Various Authors 

Compiled and Edited 

B jrW. Graham, D. D. 



The Index Printing Company 
Atlanta, Georgia 






COPYRIGHT. 1918 
BY 
THE INDEX PRINTING COMPANY 



OCT 28 1918 



©CI.Ar)06357 



I 



5 



d^ 



TO THE MEN WHO PRE- 
PARED THE MATERIAL, 
AND TO OTHER CHRIS- 
TIANS WHO LOVE THE 
TRUTH, THE WHOLE 
TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT 
THE TRUTH AS REVEALED 
IN THE BIBLE AS THE 
WORD OF GOD, THIS VOL- 
UME IS MOST AFFECTION- 
ATELY DEDICATED. 



AND TE SHALL, KNOW THE TRUTH, 
AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE. 



OCl 28 1S18 



EXPLANATORY NOTE 



Believing that a fresh discussion of certain doc- 
trines in The Christian Index would both do good 
and be appreciated, the editor conceived the idea of 
publishing a Doctrinal Number. Accordingly, he 
planned for ten articles on so many fundamental doc- 
trines, and selected an equal number of men to pre- 
pare them. Fortunately, every man complied with his 
request and wrote on the subject assigned him. The 
issue was published, and a thousand extra copies were 
printed. It would have required several additional 
thousand copies to have supplied the demand. 

Before the publication of the Doctrinal Number, the 
subjects and the names of the men to discuss them 
were announced. This resulted in the suggestion that 
the articles be published in book form. Of course 
when the authors prepared the articles they had no 
thought that they would be published in permanent 
form. In justice to them their permission was sought 
and secured to make such use of them. Their publica- 
tion in book form was conditioned upon advance or- 
ders. Such orders have been sufficiently large to au- 
thorize the publication of the book. 

"Election" and ''The Lord's Supper" are discussed 
more fully than any of the other subjects. The chap- 



EXPLANATORY NOTE. 



ter on "Election" is comprised of six articles, and that 
on "The Lord's Supper" contains the gist of a sermon 
on that subject which has been widely circulated in 
tract form. This is the explanation of why these sub- 
jects are treated more fully than the others. These 
two doctrines have been more generally misunder- 
stood than most any other Christian doctrine. It seems 
well, therefore, that they should be treated at length. 

PUBLISHERS. 



INTRODUCTORY 



There are certain fundamental doctrines which serve 
as a basis of Christian faith. Any belief which is at 
variance with these is spurious. They are the axioms 
of Christian faith, and not one of them can be disre- 
garded. When any one of them is eliminated, ship- 
wreck concerning the faith once for all delivered to the 
saints is bound to follow. Ten of these fundamental 
doctrines are discussed in this book by some of the 
ablest theologians amcng us. 

The Bible the Word of God is the first plank in the 
platform of Christian faith. There is nothing in this 
book for those who put question marks after the Bible 
or any part of it as the Word of God. The Bible is 
to the Christian faith what the constitution is to the 
state or national government. It is the first and last 
word on all matters of Christian doctrine, and God only 
as its author would have any right to change or mod- 
ify any part of it. Any post-revelation, so called, no 
matter from what source, is spurious, and if believed up- 
sets the whole system of Christian faith. To reject the 
Bible or any part of it is to leave the Christian with 
a plankless platform for his faith. 

God, and God in trinity, is revealed in the Bible. Na- 
ture reveals God and conscience bears testimony to his 



INTRODUCTORY 



laws. But neither nature nor conscience reveals God 
in trinity. The Bible is the only source of knowledge 
of Jesus as Savior and of the Holy Spirit as Comforter 
and Guide. The Bible is the only revelation we have of 
the attributes of God the Father, God the Son and God 
the Holy Spirit, and it is the only revelation of their 
unity in trinity. The functions of each of the three per- 
sons in creation, in preservation and in salvation are 
revealed in the Bible. There is no other source of in- 
formation concerning the functions of the persons in 
the trinity. 

The chapters in this book are grounded on the Bible 
and on the God of the Bible. In the doctrine of elec- 
tion the sovereignty of God and the free agency of man 
are recognized and respected. In the atonement and 
justification, sin and righteousness, justice and mercy 
are set forth in their proper relation, according to the 
Scriptures. Regeneration in relation to repentance and 
faith is presented in terms of sane and biblical inter- 
pretation. The act and significance of baptism is dis- 
cussed in the light of New Testament teachings, and 
the positions taken are unanswerable. The Memorial 
Supper is considered in a spirit of solemnity and the 
logic of the Baptist position is convincing. The inde- 
pendence and the interdependence of the churches is 
discussed in accordance with the practice of New Testa- 
ment times. In the discussion of the final persever- 



Tiii 



INTRODUCTORY 



ance of the saints a balance is preserved between the 
activities of God within the saved and the outward man- 
ifestations of that which God has wrought within the 
heart. In the final judgment due consideration is given 
to the rewards of the righteous and of the wicked, and 
the right of the exalted Savior to judge the world is 
recognized and respected. 

Christians who rest their faith on the ten fundament- 
al doctrines set forth in the ten chapters of this book 
will be saved from being carried about by every wind 
of doctrine. If they interpret all the Scriptures in the 
light of the truths set forth in them, they will have a 
symmetry and strength of faith that no heresy can mar 
or destroy. These chapters constitute a study course in 
Christian doctrine which ought to be taught in every 
church in all the land. They are sent forth in the hope 
that they will strengthen the faith of all the saints who 
read and study them. 

B. J. W. GRAHAM. 
Atlanta, Ga. 

Aug. 14, 1918. 



YE SHOULD EARNESTLY CONTEND 

FOR THE FAITH WHICH WAS ONCE DELIVBRED 

UNTO THE SAINTS. 



CONTENTS 

EXPLANATORY NOTE v-vi 

INTRODUCTION vii 

I. THE BIBLE THE WORD OF GOD. 

J. B. Gambrell, D.D., LL.D 13 

II. GOD IN TRINITY. 

F. C. McConnell, D.D 19 

III. ELECTION. 

A. B. Vaughan, D.D 25 

IV. THE ATONEMENT AND FAITH IN 

JUSTIFICATION. 

W. L. Pickard, D.D., LL.D 65 

V. REGENERATION IN RELATION TO 
REPENTANCE AND FAITH. 

E. J. Forrester, D.D 77 

VI. CHRISTIAN BAPTISM— WHAT IT IS 
AND ITS MEANING. 

D. AV. Key, D.D 83 

VII. THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD. 

Geo. W. Tniett, D.D 89 

xi 



CONTENTS. 



VIII. THE INDEPENDENCE AND INTER- 
DEPENDENCE OF THE BAPTIST 
CHURCHES. 

L. R. Scarborough, D.D 115 

IX. THE FINAL PERSEVERANCE OF THE 
SAINTS. 

E. Y. Mullins, D.D., LL.D 121 

X. A FUTURE JUDGMENT. 

J. F. Love, D.D 127 



INDEX 137 



xli 



CHAPTER I. 

THE BIBLE THE WORD OF GOD, 



By J. B. Gambrell, D.D. 

In this discussion it is assumed that there is a God. 
The Bible assumes that at the very outstart. "In the 
beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It 
is my task in this paper to advance such considerations 
to prove that the Bible is the Word of God, as will 
convince the reasonable, not the obstinate and per- 
verse. The Bible is meant for the humble truth seek- 
er, not the skeptic. The word Bible means book. Of 
the making of books there is no end; but there is one 
book, which, by the testings of the ages, has come to 
hold such a prominent place in the thinking of the 
most intelligent peoples of the earth, that, by con- 
sent, it is called THE BOOK, or Bible. It is, in fact, 
sixty-six separate writings, compiled into one volume. 
These writings were produced by many persons who 
lived in widely separated times. It is affirmed they 
were inspired by Deity, so that the one Book has but 
one Author, and that Author God. 

In our thinking on this momentous question, we must 
begin with a concrete fact. We have the Bible. 
Where did this Book come from? There is a true an- 
swer to satisfy the honest mind, not the carping mind. 

13 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

It is a very old book. It has a history such as no other 
book has. It deals with the beginnings of the human 
race and comes down through many centuries. Never 
was there a book so opposed, derided and hated of men ; 
nor one so loved and revered and obeyed. 

Countless numbers of the purest, best and wisest 
men have accepted the Bible as the Word of God. 
Those who have studied it most have believed most that 
it came from God. Men of the highest intelligence 
have so firmly believed in the divine origin of the 
Bible, that they have taken it to be the guide of their 
lives. Many have been so convinced that they have 
willingly died rather than give it up. God approaches 
his creatures on the plane of human reasonableness. 
How is it that the most learned, the wisest, the best men 
of earth have believed the Bible came from God if it is 
not so ? To a reasonable mind this fact is strongly per- 
suasive. 

It is noteworthy that the Bible everywhere assumes 
that God is its author. "Hear the Word of the Lord," 
*'God spake by the prophets," and on and on. This 
claim harmonizes with the content of the book; its 
high and holy purposes; its tone of absolute sincerity 
and truth. It never has been possible to give to pre- 
tense and falsehood, either the substance or the tone of 
truth. Nor has it been possible ever in the history of 
the race to key falsehood to high moral purposes. The 

u 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Bible claims to come from God. That claim is true, or 
else the book inculcating the highest morality, comes 
to us with falsehood written all over it. To believe 
such a monstrous incongruity requires a capacity for 
believing that no sound mind can conceive. Because 
of the simple fact just stated, the Bible has won its 
way wherever it has been honestly studied. 

Besides, truth is stamped on the pages of this won- 
drous book so indelibly, that it arrests the reader, com- 
pels his attention and forces conviction. Whoever 
made the human heart made the Bible. They fit to- 
gether. A great writer of secular history exclaimed: 
^'I know God wrote the Book; it fits into every fold of 
my nature." Another man of letters said: ''It finds 
me." An Indian called it the ''talking book." It 
was as definitely intended for and suited to human 
souls as food is for the body. Whoever made one made 
the other. Who but the all-wise God could have framed 
these two masterpieces of the universe to so completely 
fit together? 

The Bible is a vast mosaic of truth, covering centu- 
ries in its production; it deals with an untold number 
of situations, and sweeps the whole gamut of human 
experiences and needs. It is prophecy and fulfilment; 
the prophecy and the fulfilment centuries apart some- 
times. The Old Testament evolves into the New Testa- 
ment. The roots of the New Testament are back in the 

15 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES, 

Old. The fruits of the Old are in the New. Through- 
out there is harmony. One master mind made the 
whole scheme. One master hand filled it in. It is ea- 
sier to believe all the fables ever written than to be- 
lieve that many men, living in periods wide apart, could 
frame this consummate production without the guiding 
mind of Deity. 

Notable and glorious is the Messianic strain of the Old 
Testament, which had its fulfilment in the advent, life^ 
death and reign of Jesus Christ. Who but God could 
have planned it and foretold it, and in the fullness of 
time brought it all to pass? 

There were no human precedents to guide a dream- 
er. It contravened human nature in its fallen state. It 
is super-human. It is divine. The Bible is a literary 
miracle. Look at this: When Jesus was in the flesh, 
he foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the disper- 
sion of the Jews. He predicted the scattering of the 
Jews and their separate existence as a race till the full- 
ness of the Gentiles. The separate existence of the 
Jews today is a colossal and age-long miracle, as much 
so as if the Mississippi river were to run through the 
Gulf of Mexico and refuse to blend with the water 
through which it ran. This continuous miracle wa& 
proffered Frederick the Great as an unanswerable 
proof of the divinity of the Bible. Who but Deity 
could know history nineteen hundred years in the fut- 

16 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ure? And who but Deity could by invisible force so 
direct history? 

But the Bible is attested by the light that emanates 
from its pages. It is its own witness — as is the sun. 
''The entrance of thy words giveth light." What I am 
now saying comes to this: If the Bible were truly 
translated into Chinese and scattered in the darkest 
part of that vast empire of night, the people reading 
it would be lifted up by it. They would turn from the 
darkness to the light of the Bible, and they would be- 
lieve the book came from a super-human source. This 
would not happen all at once, but the process of en- 
lightenment would begin. Every nation that ever 
maintained an open Bible has been enlightened and led 
the upward way. 

But the transcendent proof of the divine origin of the 
Scriptures is the revelation in the Scriptures of Jesus 
Christ. He is the light of the world. He is himself the 
supreme miracle of the Bible, greater far than any or 
all the miracles he wrought. His simple teachings, his 
life as he lived it among men, his moral perfection and 
grandeur, his spiritual understanding — his whole ca- 
reer and character, mark him the Son of God, the "Word, 
which was made flesh and dwelt among men ; the witness, 
the leader and commander, foretold by Isaiah. And 
Jesus put his endorsement on the Bible as the Word of 
God. 

17 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

The Bible is as much a book to itself in all the realm 
of literature as Jesus Christ is unique in the realm of 
humanity. Only their divine origin and character can 
account for either. 

All this is re-inforced by experience. Coleridge, the 
man of letters, was asked how he could prove the Bible 
true. He replied, "Try it." The Book everywhere 
submits itself to the test of experience. Millions on 
millions have tried it and found it true. It teaches the 
new birth, itself a miracle. I once asked the great Sen- 
ator, United States Supreme Court Justice L. Q. C. La- 
mar, if he believed in regeneration. He thought with 
bowed head a while, and said "Yes; my mother said 
she had experienced it and my wife says she has, and 
they both lived like it was so." 

The Bible goes to the deepest recesses of the human 
soul. It leads upward. It lights the way to immor- 
tality. In our progress, we find it true at every point. 
If it is true as far as we have been able to try it, we 
are entitled to believe it true all the way. And, if true, 
its claim to be the Word of God is justified at the bar 
of the most enlightened human intelligence. 



18 



CHAPTER II. 

GOD IN TRINITY, 



By F. C. McConneU, D.D. 
The study of the Trinity presents the deepest of all 
mysteries, a Being whose existence so far transcends 
finite comprehension that he seems to be a contradic- 
tion — a One-Three, or a Three-One Being. The human 
mind cannot know three in one. It is a truth we 
know about, and one whose sublimity will open before 
the glorified mind through eternity. The figures under 
which Jehovah made himself known to his people in 
olden times and the symbols by which they knew of 
his holy presence veiled the secret as if it should not be 
known when really it was because it could not be 
known. When Paul contemplated the incarnation, he 
said: "Great is the mystery of godliness. God was 
manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of an- 
gels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the 
world, received up into glory.'' And this he said about 
God's supreme effort to bring himself within the range 
of finite comprehension. Jesus insisted that one having 
seen him had seen God, the Father. 

19 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Trinity. 
It is exceedingly unliappy to sacrifice unity to trin- 
ity. The human mind much more readily contents it- 
self with the idea of many gods than it does with the 
idea of one God. The more thoughtful who weigh the 
meaning of the attributes which the Bible ascribes to 
God are forced to accept the truth that there can be 
but one God. Such a being filling all space and possessing 
all perfections would make another such being impos- 
sible. The God of the Bible is a being who possesses, 
in perfectness, all conceivable excellence, wisdom and 
power in an infinite degree and is sovereign of the uni- 
verse. Immensity alone would exclude the possibility 
of another like being. If God fills all things, then no 
other like being can occupy a part of the universe and 
if another co-equal being should occupy the universe 
that being would not be another but the same being co- 
equal, co-existent, co-extensive and coetaneous-God. 

Trinity of being, therefore, is the only solution of 
the staggering truth we meet at every step in the study 
of God. Father, Son and Spirit — three persons. One 
Being: It is this super-human truth which we are 
asked to believe and upon which the Deity of Jesus 
Christ depends. We may be thankful that God has gra- 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ciously provided that in Jesus ' ' all the fullness of the 
Godhead dwells," and "to know him is life eternal." 
A i>erson is a being who has consciousness, conscience 
and will. These are possessed by the Father, the Son 
and the Spirit. Each knows himself to be. Each knows 
he is responsible. Each determines. When these ele- 
ments of personality are possessed in infinitude they are 
coincident. It is the triune will that appears to be most 
difficult of reconciliation, and it was about the will 
that the Savior had most to say. *'I do always the 
will of my Father in heaven." When the will is most 
free it is free to relinquish its freedom. When the will 
has reached its highest freedom it will then coincide 
with the will of God. Personality in infinitude main- 
tains Trinity in glorious unity. 

Deity. 

There is no precedent nor comparison in thinking of 
Deity. There is but one. We may not aid our in- 
quiries by any kind of similitude. Deity is the one and 
only Being of his kind. It is revealed to us that Deity 
exists in Trinity. ''God is love." In eternity when 
there was no world, nor sentient being, upon whom 
to bestow complacent emotions, God loved his eternal 

21 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Son and the Holy Spirit, who themselves exercised the 
highest of all attributes of Being in loving the Father 
and each the other. The Father loved the Son. The 
Son loved the Father, and the Holy Spirit, who em- 
bodies both, is equally loved by the Father and the Son 
and loves alike the Father and the Son. Duality could 
not complete infinite Being. A third person is neces- 
sary to the thought of disinterested and perfectly un- 
selfish love, one upon whom Father and Son bestow 
perfect love — the Holy Spirit. 

The Deity of Jesus Christ. 

It is passing strange that all the sceptical attacks 
made on the Trinity should have fallen on Jesus Christ, 
when it is he who makes the Trinity a possible and a 
practical thought to needy men. It is Jesus Christ in 
whose face the light of God shines. In him a suffer- 
ing world finds comfort, a needy world finds help and a 
sinful world a Savior. 

Jesus Christ is the Second Person in the Holy Trinity. 

Jesus said he was God. **My Father and I are one." 
Jesus' works were the works of God. "My Father 
worketh hitherto and I work." 

It is by the merit of his personality that he makes 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

an atonement for the whole world. ''Jesus tasted 
death for every man." Jesus is able and willing to 
save. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." When it is said that 
Jesus saves by the life he lived and the truth he taught, 
let it be remembered that the consummation of the life 
he lived was the willing surrender of that life, while yet 
a young man, in death on the cross, for sin. "Christ 
died for our sins according to the Scriptures," and the 
truth he taught reached its consummate heights in the 
claim he made of Deity. "He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father." The highest value of the example of 
Jesus was his condescension to become a man, knowing 
himself to be the Son of God. "Let this mind be in 
you which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no 
reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, 
. . . and became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross." 

It is to the personality of Jesus Christ that the Chris- 
tian dispensation gives the glory. He is the "Lamb, 
the Lion of the tribe of Juda." Jesus is the mediator 
of the New Covenant. "He was made the High Priest 
of the New Tabernacle." "For by one offering he hath 
perfected forever them that are sanctified." 

23 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Jesus is King in the kingdom of grace. He is Mel- 
chizedec — of another order — superhuman — king of 
Salem, King of peace. "For he must reign, till he 
hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy 
that shall be destroyed is death. And when all things 
shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also, 
himself be subject to him that put all things under 
him, that God may be all in all." God the Father and 
God the Spirit glorify the Son, and the Son shall then 
glorify the Father. Fatherhood and Sonship in co- 
equal fellowship through the ever blessed Spirit. "To 
the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, 
dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." 



24 



CHAPTER in. 

ELECTION, 



By A. B. Yaughan, D.D. 

Prom the time when it was first taught to the pres- 
ent day, the doctrine of election or, which is the same 
thing, the doctrine of God's sovereignty in the bestow- 
ment of his grace, has encountered bitter opposition 
from those who profess to be Christians, as well as 
from those who are openly and avowedly non-Chris- 
tian. 

Salvation by grace is bane to will worship, to the in- 
numerable forms of meritorious working which charac- 
terize apostate religions. Salvation by grace character- 
izes the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, distin- 
guishes it and differentiates it from all systems of 
religion invented by man, and which are accept- 
able to the carnal heart. Salvation by grace cuts 
up man's boasting at the roots, and prostrates him 
low in the dust; and without the intervention of 
infinite mercy, helpless and hopeless. Such hu- 
miliation is the last thing which proud, self-righteous 
humanity will acknowledge, and therefore men combine 
to resist and defeat the doctrine which strips them of 
all merit, all righteousness, all ability. 

25 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Strategem, ingenious interpretation, specious logic, 
the charms of philosophy, the thrusts of King Satire, the 
ribaldry of low witticisms, the contempt of withering 
ridicule, have all been employed to silence its advo- 
cates, and to render the doctrine as unpopular as it is 
unpalatable to the carnal heart. ''But it is the singular 
felicity of the doctrine to witness all the reproaches 
with which it was ever assailed recoil upon the authors 
with double confusion." And when we remember that 
all this opposition is to be accounted for by the fact 
that ''the carnal mind is enmity against God," our 
pity and our prayers should go out for those engaged 
in it. 

That we can fully understand the doctrine, none 
claim who have earnestly and thoughtfully studied it. 
But neither do we fully understand any doctrine re- 
lating to God. And as our limited understanding of 
other doctrines does not prevent our studying them, nor 
yet our preaching them, so it should not prevent either 
our studying or preaching this doctrine. 

Other doctrines are objects of our faith and subjects 
of our preaching, not because we fully understand 
them, but because they form a part of God's Word; 
and we are commanded both to study and preach that 
Word. But the doctrine of Election forms a part of 
that Word; we are therefore under divine orders both 
to study and to preach it, yet only as a part, not as the 
whole of divine revelation. 

26 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

The Doctrine Abused. 

While this doctrine has been much abused by its 
avowed enemies, it has also been scarcely less abused 
by many of its professed friends. 

1. By attempting to make it constitute the whole of 
the gospel. It is a part, and a very important part, but 
it is not the whole of the gospel; and hence it is an 
abuse of the doctrine to make of it the great bulk of our 
preaching. The doctrines of Christianity sustain a re- 
lation to each other that is vital. One cannot suffer 
without all suffering. Not one of them will bear to be 
honored at the expense of the honor which belongs to 
the others. They constitute a perfect system, each es- 
sential in its place, and in that place requiring to be 
believed and preached; otherwise a well rounded Chris- 
tian character, and a sound, healthy vigorous church are 
impossible. All the doctrines of the gospel enter as po- 
tent factors into the formation and growth, life and de- 
velopment of Christian manhood and womanhood. 

2. But the doctrine is abused again by a total neg- 
lect of it. While it does not constitute the whole, it 
does constitute a part, and a very essential part of the 
gospel. The Holy Spirit in requiring the preacher 
rightly to divide the Word of God, milk to the babes, 
and meat to the strong, does by no means enjoin it upon 
him to have a full supply of milk, while having scarcely 
any, or no meat at all. Nor does he ever so much as 

27 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

intimate that it is any part of genuine humility that 
one shall continue in spiritual babyhood. 

Our Lord said to Peter, "Feed my lambs." But this 
command he gave once only; while the command, ''Feed 
my sheep," he gave twice, as if he regarded it more im- 
portant to feed his sheep than his lambs. And so it is. 
For if the sheep are properly fed from the pulpit, they 
themselves will furnish much spiritual food for the 
lambs, in Sunday schools, prayer meetings, in a godly 
walk and conversation. 

Paul counted it a reproach to the saints at Corinth 
that he had to feed them with milk and not with the 
strong meat. And this he did, although they had long 
been idolaters, and but recently converted to Christian- 
ity. If we should receive a letter from him in this 
respect, what would he say to many of our churches, 
churches that have never known such idolatry? 

The "sincere milk of the word*' is given that we may 
grow thereby, and not to keep us in perpetual baby- 
hood. Continuance in spiritual infancy is evidence of 
carnality. Prayerless mornings, a neglected Bible, hab- 
itual absence from the sanctuary, tend to weakness 
and waywardness, carnality. And shall such inexcus- 
able carnality prevent the preacher of the gospel from 
giving the meat of the gospel to those who hunger for 
it, and whose strength requires it? 

28 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Grant that in our congregations there are those too 
young to relish what is commonly known as the strong 
doctrines, conspicuous among which is the doctrine of 
election; will silence in the pulpit with regard to these 
doctrines, week after week, and month after month, 
contribute anything of strength to these little ones that 
they may appreciate them? The way to make them 
strong is to give them something to think on, more pro- 
found than that which occupies the thoughts of the 
careless and restless and indifferent. 

There is more or less of self-righteousness in us all, 
and there is not a more effectual way to kill it than 
to keep steadily in view God's sovereignty as that is 
displayed in the great doctrines of grace. If we would 
accurately survey and correctly understand the field 
of Christian knowledge, we must have for our start- 
ing point, not man, but God. We must set our stakes 
so as to traverse the lines, not of human sympathy or 
worth or works, but of God's wisdom, holiness, right- 
eousness, justice. 

3. Once more: The doctrine is abused by the at- 
tempt to apologize for its existence in the Christian sys- 
tem, or which is the same thing, so to explain it away 
as to make it palatable to the carnal heart. Vain are 
our efforts to glorify God by continually trying to res- 
cue him, as we think, from the odium which we sinfully 
suppose any doctrine that he has taught casts upon him. 

29 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

The Monarch of the Universe, no more in the ex- 
ercise of his sovereign will than in the manifestations 
of infinite mercy, needs apology or defense from his 
creatures. The sovereign acts of the Lord Almighty, 
albeit the reason for these acts we cannot comprehend, 
and his tender mercies which are equally inexplicable, 
are alike founded in infinite righteousness. Nor is he 
honored by the most fulsome praise of the lips, or the 
most costly gift of the hands, while the heart refuses 
to him that glory which is essentially his. And not the 
least of this glory is the right to do as he will, without 
taking even archangels into his counsel, to say noth- 
ing of men and women, in bondage to sin. 

Objection Urged Against the Doctrine. 

There are minds which seem to be so constituted 
that they cannot steadfastly hold to any doctrine or 
truth, if against that doctrine or truth serious objec- 
tions may be urged. Such persons need the conviction 
of Newman, "That one of the surest marks of a liv- 
ing faith is its disregard of consequences;" and of 
Butler, "That if a truth be once established, objections 
are nothing, the one being founded on our knowledge, 
the other on our ignorance." 

The chief objection urged against the doctrine of 
Election is that it does violence to man's freedom of 
will, man as a free, moral agent. The argument runs 

30 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

about as follows: "If the doctrine of Election be true, 
the doctrine of man's freedom of will cannot be true. 
But nothing is more plainly and abundantly taught in 
the Scriptures than man's moral responsibility, which 
of necessity involves his freedom of will; the doctrine 
of Election cannot therefore be trae." 

It seems not to have entered the mind of those who 
urge this objection, that both the doctrine of Election 
and of man's moral responsibility are Scripture doc- 
trines; that the authority for believing the one is the 
authority for believing the other; that the doctrine 
of Election is not necessarily untrue because we, with 
our limited powers of mind, are unable to reconcile it 
with man's moral accountability. They seem to see 
nothing plainer than that the doctrine of Election inter- 
poses an eternal barrier to man's freedom of will; that 
it consigns to endless suffering many who would other- 
wise reach the climes of glory, through repentance to- 
ward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and a life 
devoted to things holy and righteous. 

And yet those who make these arguments insist that 
man must be regenerated, born of God ; that without re- 
generation, whereby he becomes a partaker of the di- 
vine life, the most exemplary moral life avails nothing 
in the way of securing salvation. 

Some years ago, Dr. G. W. Northrup, sometime pres- 
ident of the Theological Seminary, Chicago, wrote a se- 

31 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ries of articles, which appeared in the Chicago Stand- 
ard on ''The Sovereignty of God in Predestination, as 
Held by Many Representative Calvinistic Theologi- 
ans." 

In one of those articles he says: ''We believe that 
no adequate rational or scriptural evidence can be ad- 
duced in support of either of these propositions : ' ' That 
there is no difference" (italics his) "between men to 
which God has respect as among the reasons or condi- 
tions of his choice of one man rather than another." 
And yet in the same article, he had written: "We be- 
lieve that renewal, passing from death to life, is not 
an act of will, the acceptance of Jesus Christ, but is the 
exclusive work of God, at the center of the soul, changing 
its moral bias, originating a holy disposition, which 
abides as the foundation of all holy activity. When a 
man exercises repentance and faith, he is already re- 
newed; these acts are expressions of the new life." To 
what then, pray, would the Lord have respect of the 
things in men, as constituting "the reasons or conditions 
of his choice of one man rather than another?" 

But hear Dr. Northrup again. He says: "There is 
no adequate scriptural proof that the purpose to pass by, 
to withhold renewing grace is, in the logical order, an- 
tecedent to, and independent of the actual foresight of 
the personal action of those included in that purpose.*^ 
(Italics his.) 

32 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

What ** personal action?" It cannot be repentance 
and faith, because, according to Dr. Northrup himself, 
''These acts are expressions of the new life;" and this 
new life "is the exclusive work of God at the center of 
the soul, changing its moral bias, originating a holy dis- 
position, which abides as the foundation of all holy activ- 
ity.' ' (Italics mine.) 

Now it is plain that Dr. Northrup and all that class of 
theoolgians, in their view touching the point under dis- 
cussion, are logically compelled to hold : Either that the 
Lord God Almighty, purposed to siipply the spiritual 
conditions, to which he would have respect, in making 
choice of some men to salvation; or there are natural 
qualities belonging to some unregenerate men, which oth- 
ers lack ; and it was these qualities, to which God had re- 
spect in making his choice of some men and not all, to 
salvation. 

The first alternative is irrational, in that it reflects 
upon the holy and righteous way that God does every- 
thing. I am, say, principal of a military school. I an- 
nounce on a certain day I would openly recommend for 
special honors, one member of each class in the school, 
which recommendation would be based upon a certain 
condition, unnamed and therefore unknown to the en- 
tire school. As matter of fact, the condition is pos- 
sessed by no member of either class. But on the morn- 
ing that the honors are to be conferred, I, as principal 

33 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

of the school, privately supply the condition to one cadet 
of each class; and those, thus supplied by me, the prin- 
cipal of the school, receive the special honors. 

You are shocked. "Irrational" is the mildest term 
that can justly be applied to my conduct. ''Irrational!" 
I use the word because in his philosophising Dr. North- 
rup seems to be fond of the term. Irrational ! It is un- 
holy, unjust, unlike our God in all of his ways. 

The second alternative is not only unseriptural, it is 
anti-scriptural; and that is enough to say. The Scrip- 
tures teach over and over again, that in their relation to 
God, the moral Governor of the universe, all men with- 
out exception are alike. "There is no difference." "All 
have sinned." Dr. Northrup belonged to a class of the- 
ologians, who seem to be fond of saying: "If the doc- 
trine of Election, as you Calvinists teach it, is true, then 
the perdition of a part of mankind, the non-elect, is not 
only certain, but inevitable, let them do what they can 
to obtain salvation, even in the way appointed in the 
gospel. ' ' 

It would greatly help the brethren who seemingly 
take delight in flaunting the saying quoted above, and it 
would save their hearers from much noisy wrangling, if 
they could get this truth in their minds and consistently 
hold it : That men go into perdition not because they are 
non-elect, but because they are sinners against God, sin- 

34 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ners who love sin rather than righteousness. God's 
choice of some to salvation, in no wise so operates upon 
the will of those whom he does not choose, as to prevent 
their doing what they choose to do, what they really 
want to do. 

But let us look further into what is necessarily im- 
plied in the statement quoted above; and that is, if the 
purpose to pass by, to withhold renewing grace were in 
logical order subsequent to, and dependent upon the ac- 
tual foresight of the personal action of those included in 
that purpose, the perdition of the non-elect would not be 
inevitable. 

But why ? What is it that would so lessen the certain- 
ty of the perdition of the non-elect? The answer must 
be, it cannot be other than that God's purpose to bestow 
renewing grace being logically dependent upon the ac- 
tual foresight of his personal action, would inure to the 
certainty of the sinner's salvation. 

But these acts of the sinner must be voluntary acts, that 
is acts which show the real character of the man. If 
therefore the divine purpose to save has respect to, is 
influenced by, the personal actions of those included in 
the purpose, it follows that God's purpose to save is 
based upon the character of the sinner. The proposition 
that God has respect to what men are, as shown by what 
they do, in his dealings with them, is both rational and 
scriptural. Now this being true in reference to his deal- 

35 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ings with men, it must be true of his purpose in regard 
to them. Otherwise there would be discord between 
the purpose and the execution of the purpose. 

Thus we are driven to the conclusion that the system 
which denies the precedence of grace in the purpose of 
God respecting human redemption and salvation logical- 
ly teaches that the sinner is saved because of what he is; 
and what he is, too, antecedent to, and independent of 
God's purpose to bestow renewing grace. 

Time and again these good brethren have charged Cal- 
vinism with being irrational and unseriptural. Until 
they have carefully, prayerfully and under the guidance 
of both Scripture and reason, thought through their own 
system, prudence would counsel: *' Study to be quiet, 
and to do your own business." 

But, let us face the question, the simple question: 
Would man's being endowed with the greatest freedom 
of will possible, as a lost man, render his perdition less 
certain than it would be, granting that God's purpose to 
bestow renewing grace is antecedent to and independent 
of, anything good or tad which God foresaw in him? 

Now keep in mind that we are considering man as he 
is, not perfect, but imperfect, not holy, but unholy, 
fallen, depraved, the bond slave of sin. Endow such a 
man, and such only are all unregenerate men, endow 
such a man with the utmost stretch of freedom ever 
claimed by the most ardent advocates of free will, "the 

36 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

freedom of indifference, or the power to act without mo- 
tive, power in the will to determine itself by its own act 
alone," let not its act be due to any cause, nor influ- 
enced by any motive, external or internal, and surely 
this is freedom enough; would such an endowment of 
the sinner render his perdition less certain than it would 
be granting that the doctrine of Election, as held by 
intelligent Calvinists, is true? 

Let those T\ho take this position hold it if they can. 
If this bulwark of their defense is not utterly demol- 
ished it will not be because the truth is not against it, 
but because and only because in my weakness I shall be 
unable to bring against it the mighty battering ram of 
scriptural argument. 

Absolute Free Will. 

Upon the hypothesis of absolute free will, which 
is defined in the foregoing, the gospel, including as it 
does, the life, death, resurrection, ascension and in- 
tercession of Jesus Christ our Lord, and the conse- 
quent ministry of the Holy Spirit, convincing men of 
sin, righteousness and judgment, all go for nothing. 

The three-fold conviction of the Holy Spirit, as the 
context in the sixteenth chapter of John reveals, pre- 
supposes the presentation of these great truths of the 
gospel to the mind, as powerful motives. But accord- 

37 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ing to tlie hypothesis of absolute free will under dis- 
cussion, the will must not be influenced, constrained in 
making choice, but must be left ''to act without no- 
tice," must be left ''to determine itself by its own act 
alone." It is plain that on such an hypothesis, the 
proclamation of the gospel is labor in vain ; and the only 
conceivable salvation therefore is independent of the 
gospel — salvation without Christ. 

But just so sure as the Bible is God's truth, reveal- 
ing to man his lost and ruined estate, and Jesus Christ 
the only Savior, through suffering, death and a risen 
life, which truths the Holy Spirit uses as powerful mo- 
tives and with mighty effect in bringing sinners to 
repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, the 
living Lord, just that sure is such a salvation an im- 
possibility, and all theories which logically lead to such 
a conclusion, are false in principle, no less than in fact. 

And so the force with which the advocates of absolute 
free will have labored to demolish the doctrine of God's 
sovereignty in election, as contained in strict Calvinism, 
rebounds with increasing momentum against this, their 
bulwark of defense, and leaves not one stone upon an- 
other. For such a scheme of salvation renders not only 
certain, but inevitable the perdition of not merely a 
part, but the whole of mankind. 

But it may be said that I have not fairly stated the 
position of the advocates of free will. Then I stand 

38 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ready openly to retract what I have written, and to 
acknowledge ignorance on the subject. 

I would suggest, however, that before I make any 
retraction or acknowledge ignorance, my good friend 
who would thus accuse me shall read ''The Freedom 
of the "Will, as a Basis of Human Responsibility and 
Divine Government," by D. D. Whedon, D.D., New 
York, 1864. 

Dr. Whedon, it will be remembered, was in his day 
the well known, able editor of The Methodist Quarter- 
ly Review, and was regarded as the acutest representa- 
tive of the theology of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Dr. Whedon comes to the discussion with a set of 
words new and strange. On page eighteen he says that 
he uses volition and choice interchangeably. And then 
he adds: ''A volition in view of some perceived prefer- 
ability," is a choice. The direct act of the will, he 
calls volitional; and the consequent act of the man, 
whether of mind or body, he calls voluntary. 

Volitional actions are reduced by him to these three: 
"An object or direction of action, mental comprehen- 
sion and motive. ' ' Again he says : " Motive is a usual 
antecedent of action," but he doubts "its strict uni- 
versality." We are thus not surprised when he says, 
that the maxim, "Like causes ever and always pro- 
duce like effects" is "inapplicable in the volitional 
sphere. ' ' 

39 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Now hear him on the ''Crucial Question." "What 
causes, determines, the will to put forth a particular voli- 
tion? *'An alternative power or cause is an alternative 
thin^ and accounts for the coming into existence of eith- 
er one of several effects;" and he adds "So and at once 
and for all, the crucial question is answered, ' ' page 90. 
But when pressed with the inquiry. What causes the will 
to produce any particular effect? his reply, in capitals 
and italics is: "Nothing whatever," and for the reason 
that "Every complete cause produces its effect un- 
causedly." Page 92. 

In the light of these quotations, I leave to every un- 
biased and competent reader to say, whether the posi- 
tion of the advocates of absolute free will has been 
misrepresented. One of the most profound thinkers 
and ablest theologians that America ever produced 
wrote: "Man's freedom may be so defined as logically 
to exclude even foreknowledge; God's agency may be so 
defined as to imply that he is the efficient cause of all 
human volitions. And though we cannot penetrate the 
interaction of the two, yet we may see when either is 
ruled out by the very terms in which the other is pro- 
pounded. Though we cannot solve a mystery, we may 
appreciate a logical contradiction. No one is prepared 
to discuss the problem who has not an awe-inspiring 
sense of the divine majesty, as well as a deep convic- 

40 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

tion of the difficulties that environ the ultimate moral 
preferences of a responsible human will. 

Again he wrote : ' ' The will in fact brings our whole 
being into concentrated expression. At the basis are 
the generic elements of human nature; these are indi- 
vidualized in a distinct moral personality; and the per- 
son putting forth power, especially in the form of choice 
or preference, is the will. It is only logically that the will 
is distinguishable from the man or person; really it is 
never so." And when we keep in mind that the car- 
dinal point in the will's freedom, that on which re- 
sponsibility chiefly hangs, is the fact that the person is 
consciously free in the choice actually made, we shall 
be forever free from the ugly habit of trying to main- 
tain man's moral responsibility at the expense of the 
rights, prerogatives that essentially belong to the Sov- 
ereign of the Universe. 

Motives must influence the will according to some 
law, which when it is understood, will in its general 
operation, be found to be unvarying. This law will also 
be found to be a most beneficent law, a law without 
which such a thing as social order, moral government, 
could not exist. 

This law is that the stronger of two, or the strongest 
of several motives presented to the mind, influence the 
will to action. Reverse this law, and the righteous 

41 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

would furnish our jails with criminals in conduct, while 
the vicious in character would furnish the conspicuous 
examples of excellence in conduct. For as a man wills, 
so he acts, except in cases of co-action; and no longer 
would the words of our Lord be true : *'By their fruits 
ye shall know them." Conduct would be no longer a 
true index of character. 

But again motives are not self -originating, nor are 
they produced by the mere act of the will. Whence 
then do they arise ? "Where do they reside ? And what 
is the measure of their strength? They arise from the 
mind's contemplating some object. They reside in the 
soul. The measure of their strength is the character of 
the individual. 

These truths may be aptly and abundantly illus- 
trated from history sacred and profane ; and if one will 
thoughtfully study his own mental states and conse- 
quent action, he will find them confirmed by his own 
experience. 

That which is a motive sufficiently strong to influ- 
ence one man in a given direction fails utterly in the 
case of another. The reason is that the causes of vo- 
lition lie wholly within the soul. ''Outward things 
have value and attractiveness, only as the mind seizes 
upon them with its desires, only as they are objects of 
some want within." The predominant motive is thus 

42 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

seen to be, in fact, the bent of the mind, the manifesta- 
tion of its fundamental, governing disposition. 

It is nothing against this view, that now and then, 
here and there, a man puts forth single volitions, and 
does individual acts contrary to his true character. As 
for example, when an ungodly person professes Chris- 
tianity, or the genuine Christian commits a sin. This 
is but the temporary flowing back of a wave, while the 
main current beneath goes steadily on in its course. 

A little tiine only is required for the settled charac- 
ter of the man to show itself in the uniform putting 
forth of his will. 

Judas Iscariot was numbered among the apostles, yet 
he was a devil, and his character came clearly to view 
in his designs and plottings to destroy the innocent for 
money. 

Peter was a truly regenerated man, and ardent lover 
of Jesus, as the Christ of God, yet in a moment of 
fear, he denied his Lord. But behold him yonder in the 
darkness weeping bitterly over the temporary displace- 
ment of his true self; and watch that character settling 
itself more firmly than it had ever been hitherto in its 
love and loyalty to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. 
Witness his appeal to the omniscience of the risen Christ 
to attest his love, which had been obscured, yet clean 
out of sight of men, in the hour of temptation. ''Lord, 
thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee. ' ' 



At 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTBINES. 

My friendly reader, if you have had the patience to 
follow me thus far, you see that the will is the man 
choosing; that the Lord in thus constituting him can- 
not be charged with unrighteousness; that no violence 
is done to any person, so long as that person is free 
to do what he chooses to do. You also see that it is 
utterly impossible^' for one by a mere act of will to re- 
verse his moral nature. **Let him make the attempt, 
and he finds himself as powerless as a man standing 
upon the surface of the ground over one of those Ken- 
tucky rivers, would be to turn back in its course the 
rushing torrent that flows beneath his feet.*' 

Election and Predestination. 

Let us now inquire: What is gained by accepting 
the doctrine of God's foreknowledge, while denying 
the doctrine of election as held by intelligent Calvin- 
ists? 

What is foreknowledge? I quote from teachers of 
theology who rank among the greatest: "Foreknowl- 
edge is that attribute of God, whereby he knows him- 
self and all other things in one simple act." — Calvin. 

''Knowledge of a plan as ideal or possible may pre- 
cede decree ; but knowledge of a plan as actual or fixed 
must follow decree. Only the latter knowledge is 
properly foreknowledge." — Strong. 

44 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

**6od knows all events that are certain or fixed. The 
certainty that they will come to pass is based upon his 
decree. He therefore knows all things that shall come 
to pass." — ^Boyce. 

''Unless God have knowledge of future contingent 
events, we cannot say that he is omniscient, and in or- 
der that there may be any certainty in the divine 
government, God must know what is to occur in the 
future." — ^Henry B. Smith. The same author in ref- 
erence to divine decrees, writes: ''This is the mean- 
ing of the word efficacious as applied to the divine de- 
crees, that is, what is contained in them is sure, cer- 
tain; the decree is effectual, a purpose which is carried 
into effect, not that the decree itself is efficacious, or 
that God, by a direct efficiency, carries each decree into 
operation. The reasons for this are: (1) If it were 
not so, there would be no certainty to divine govern- 
ment. This might be overthrown or set aside. The ful- 
filment of prophecy may depend upon a million min- 
ute particulars whose occurrence must be secured. (2) 
The Scriptures assert it. All the prophecies establish 
it." Isa. 14:27: "For Jehovah of hosts hath pur- 
posed, and who shall annul it? And his hand is 
stretched forth, and who shall turn it back?" 

What is uncertain, undetermined, cannot be the ob- 
ject of foreknowledge. Any event must be certain, 
fixed, determined, in order that it shall be foreknown. 

45 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

He therefore who accepts the doctrine of the fore- 
knowledge of God, while denying the doctrine of his 
decree, is compelled to hold that in regard to events 
that have transpired, and that are now transpiring 
and that shall hereafter transpire, in his oYtm uni- 
verse, God is a mere spectator. 

But the foreknowledge of God antedates all crea- 
tion; and since it is essential to foreknowledge that the 
events foreknown must be certain, fixed, determined; 
and since before creation there was neither man nor 
angel, nor devil, neither prineipalities nor powers, this 
question is pressing for an answer: By whom, or rath- 
er by what were the events, making up this world's 
history themselves made certain that the Lord God Al- 
mighty might foreknow them? 

The logical teaching of the theology which would in- 
vest God with foreknowledge, while at the same time 
it would divest him of purpose, or decree, must inevita- 
bly involve this positon, namely, ''The only relation 
which God sustains to the events which are to trans- 
pire in the future of his own universe, is that they 
undoubtedly shall come to pass, at the times, in the 
places, in the order, and by their respective agencies, 
exactly as foreknown '* — ^just this, nothing more. 

The wisdom which planned, and the power executive 
which guides and controls the multiform forces, in 
countless combinations and modes of action that se- 

46 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

cure the events as they have been in the past, are 
now in the present, and shall be in the future unfolded 
before the eyes of intelligent beings, cannot be other 
than infinite wisdom and power. 

But according to that short, swift and easy theology, 
which holds that "God foreknew, but he did not de- 
cree,'* the wisdom which planned and the power which 
■guides and controls the complicated machinery of this 
world — not to speak of the universe — involving the 
minds as well as the bodies of multiplied millions of 
intelligent and morally responsible agents to certain 
definite ends and issues, as they were foreknown from 
the beginning, was not the wisdom and power of the 
Christian's God and Father. 

Let those who love that theology, hold and teach it, if 
they will. I will neither hold nor teach it because I do 
not love it; it has no charms for me; nor has it the 
endorsement of the "Teacher come from God.*' 

In this connection I am constrained to ask : Do we 
really believe in God? God revealed in the holy Scrip- 
tures, who declares "The end from the beginning; and 
from ancient times things which are not yet done;" 
€rod who declares: "My counsel shall stand, and I 
will do all my pleasure." God unto whom "Are 
known all his works from the beginning of the world?" 
It is interesting to note that the last quotation, which 
is from the Apostle James — Acts 15 :18, ascribes both the 

47 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

knowledge and the works to God — not the knowledge 
to him and the works to another ; but both to him, fore- 
knowledge and decree ; for God works ever and always 
according to his purpose. 

We trust him with the destiny of our souls both for 
time and eternity; and do we shrink back when we are 
challenged to trust him with the governance of all 
things, even to the minutest details? Are we afraid 
to acknowledge the decrees of God, lest we abridge our 
own liberty? Does such acknowledgment so circum- 
scribe the field of our being and action, as to leave not 
room enough for the consciousness of our moral freedom, 
and consequent moral responsibility? 

Does one say: "Such knowledge is too wonderful 
for me?" While our God and his ways are too great 
for our minds to understand, are they too great for our 
hearts to trust? The wisdom and power may believe it, 
and be saved; while the very greatest of human minds 
are unable to fathom the depths of its meaning. God 
nowhere requires that we shall comprehend him; but 
that we shall have faith in him, trust in him, not as 
separate and apart from the disclosures he has made 
of himself; but in him with all that he reveals of his 
knowledge, wisdom, power, justice, holiness and truth. 
Have we not need sometimes to examine ourselves, 
lest we make a god after our liking and worship it, 
whilst we live in ignorance of the only true and living 

48 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

God, and turn our faces away when a true portrayal of 
his character and nature is brought to view in the gos- 
pel faithfully preached? 

"We have sometimes heard the cry ''fatality" brought 
against the doctrine for which we stand and would 
teach. But what is this that confronts us in the 
broad-guaged way of that theology which accepts the 
doctrine of the foreknowledge of God, whilst denying 
his decree of Election? What but that soulless, paF- 
sionless, unintelligent idol — fate? 

We need not tremble when we are told that God 
predestinates what comes to pass in human history, 
fearing to accept the statement as true lest we should 
involve the great Lord God in sin. "The Judge of all 
the earth does right." He is God, Most Holy, the only 
perfect standard of every conceivable virtue, moral 
and spiritual excellence. Because we may not be able 
to reconcile liberty and certainty in the moral govern- 
ment of the universe, shall we deny that they are re- 
concilable? That they are consistent, we may be 
sure; for God knows how free agents will act. 

I am not essaying to solve the problems and remove 
the difficulties which to the understanding of men at- 
tach to the deep things of God. But I am insisting that 
we shall acknowledge as true the doctrines he teaches 
us in the Revelation he has given us, despite the dif- 

49 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ficulties. For one I do not accept the teaching either 
of Sabatier or Harnack, French philosopher or German 
rationalist, concerning the inspiration and authority of 
the book, known and loved as the Bible. 

There are difficulties in the Bible; there is an abun- 
dance of plain and easy things; and these, praise God, 
are the things essential to life and salvation. But the 
man who, in his study of the Book, has never found 
difficulties, problems too great for solution by finite 
minds, has barely looked beneath the surface. And 
these difficulties are found not about the decrees of 
GodI merely, but about prayer, providence, incarna- 
tion, resurrection, about life itself. If we cannot re- 
move these difficulties, solve these problems, what are 
we to do? Petulantly to throw the Book down, and 
leave its lessons unstudied, and its mysteries unsought? 
That were folly in the extreme; because there is not a 
doctrine taught in the inspired Word, that the denial 
of it will not involve us in far more insuperable dif- 
ficulties than the acceptance of it. The miracles of 
unbelief are greater in number, and outrage sound 
reason tenfold more, than the miracles of evangelical 
faith. 

I have no desire either to state or advocate any doc- 
trine of the grace of God so as to meet the approval of 
men who are out of harmony with the will and Word 
of God. For in that case, I should be sure I had not 

50 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES . 

pleased God. To elect means to choose; election 
means choice; the elect, "God's elect," means God's 
chosen ones. 

The Doctrine Stated. 

"Election is that eternal act of God by which, in his 
sovereign pleasure, and on account of no foreseen mer- 
it in them, he chooses certain out of the number of sin- 
ful men to be the recipients of the special grace of his 
spirit, and so to be made voluntary partakers of 
Christ's salvation." — ^A. H. Strong. 

This "special grace of his spirit" is the Holy Spir- 
it's regenerating power, by which the ruling prefer- 
ences, the governing disposition, in fine the character, 
of the sinner is so changed that he voluntarily, through 
repentance and faith, partakes of "Christ's salvation." 

The Holy Spirit puts the matter thus through the 
apostle to the Gentiles: "We are bound to give thanks 
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, 
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to sal- 
vation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of 
the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel, etc." 
2 Thess. 2 ; 13-14. Here both the fact and the mode of 
accomplishing the fact; both the end and the means to 
the end, are revealed. And with this plain statement 
before their eyes, with what show of respect for the 
truth of God can men charge upon the doctrine of 

51 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

election, that it renders useless either the preaching of 
the gospel or the belief in it? Never did, and never 
will a correct, i. e., a Scriptural conception of the doc- 
trine, obviate the necessity of the means with which it 
is joined in the Word of God ; and therefore in the pur- 
pose of God. Nor has the correct belief of the doc- 
trine any such tendency as to make the advocates of it 
careless or indifferent with reference to the divinely 
appointed means. Nor does it foster lives of ungodli- 
ness in those who really believe it. "Witness the lives 
and labors of eminent saints. 

God's purpose of election is not, and cannot be, the 
rule of our conduct before or after conversion. But 
included in the purpose of salvation, according to elec- 
tion, is the revealed truth that God has been pleased 
to associate with himself men, not as delegating to them 
saving power, but as agents by whom the gospel is 
preached, *'the gospel which is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth." The rule of our 
conduct, both of saints and sinners is, therefore not 
tc be sought in the secret purpose of God; but it is to 
be sought and found in God's purpose of salvation as 
that has been revealed by him and which has been un- 
folded in the lives and labors of prophets and apos- 
tles, whose record we may read in the sacred volume. 

No man can therefore justly charge that God has 
commanded us to certain lines of conduct, and ob- 

52 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

structed the way of obedience by Ms secret purpose. 
Shall we refuse obedience to the plain and explicit di- 
rections which are found in the revelation which God 
has given us, until we shall be able to understand and 
explain how and why our obedience is required by the 
Sovereign of the Universe? If we had the capacity to 
understand and to make explanation of this character, 
would not such obedience destroy the ground of faith, 
and exalt utility above the commandments of the Lord 
Jehovah? Aye, more, would not such a course of con- 
duct destroy the possibility of Christian life and char- 
acter? As God's purpose of election is not the rule 
of the preacher's action in proclaiming the gospel, so 
neither is the doctrine of election the object of the sin- 
ner's faith in order to his salvation. And so neither 
the one nor the other would be justified in withholding 
obedience until he should be able to comprehend the 
secret purpose of God, with reference to himself. 

The uniform teaching of the Scripture, in regard to 
the invitations of the gospel is, "Whosoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely;" i. e., gratis. And 
universal Christian experience witnesses that this tes- 
timony is faithful and true. The trouble which lies in 
the way of those who perish — and certain it is that 
God's elect do not perish — and obstructs the way of 
their coming to Christ for life and salvation, is not any 
purpose of God, secret or manifest, but it is their own 

53 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

settled preferences, affections, desires, in fine, their 
characters. 

They see in Christ, the Savior, **no beauty that they 
should desire him." They are out and out, through 
and through — ^altogether opposed to him. "Ye will 
not come to me, that ye might have life," at once and 
forever tells where the trouble lies, where the obstruc- 
tion is to be found. Stretching far beneath the out- 
ward conduct of these unbelieving Jews, and dominat- 
LDg them, was their heart-life, alienated from Christ 
and hostile to him. The heart-life of every sinner, Jew 
or Gentile, must be changed, radically changed, ere he 
will come to Christ, believe in Christ. Now because 
this is true, does it make the charge against God just, 
the charge of insincerity, because he broadly declares, 
the water of life is free to all who will partake of it? 
Is the sincerity of the call of the gospel disproved, if 
those who will not, refuse to believe it, and are lost for- 
ever? Strange reasoning this. Not until the water of 
life has been withheld from one, only one, who would 
partake of it; not until our Lord, Christ, has cast out 
one, only one, who came to him, believed in. him, will 
the charge stand. 

Does some earnest, honest soul, who has long been 
perplexed in regard to this doctrine, but wants to find 
the truth, say: '*But the Holy Spirit does so change 
the settled preferences, the governing disposition, the 

54 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

character of some persons, that they choose to come to 
Christ and are saved?" So he does; and but for this 
radical change wrought by the Holy Spirit all men, 
without exception, would finally and forever perish. 
But stay: Have you thought that the statement you 
make, in all probability, is in the nature of a com- 
plaint? And complaint, relative to the matter under 
consideration, rests upon one or the other of two 
grounds, maybe upon both. The first is the fear to 
leave for final disposal our supreme interests, ourselves, 
to the ''good pleasure" of God's will, lest justice should 
miscarry. The second is a lack of full confidence in 
"the breadth and length and depth" of the goodness, 
love and mercy of our Sovereign Lord for a lost world. 
Now, respecting the first, "the good pleasure" of 
God's will, keep this ever in mind: The testimony of 
universal Christian experience — and there is no testi- 
mony among men so true and trustworthy, besides it is 
the only testimony in this case that is available or val- 
id — the testimony of Christian experience is that our 
lives are truer, more honorable, purer, more just and 
virtuous, holy and good ; that we have our deepest, most 
real and abiding joy, our sweetest peace, and most sat- 
isfying contentment just when we are walking accord- 
ing "to the good and acceptable and perfect will of 
God." And do you fear to abandon everything, even 

55 



TEN FUNDAM ENT A L DOCTRINES. 

your own life and its destiny for time and eternity to 
the "good pleasure" of that will? No; I know you do 
not. 

With reference to the second, namely : The good- 
ness, love and mercy of God for a lost world, two re- 
marks are pertinent. (1) Would you divest the Lord 
Almighty of the glory, that is essentially his, in the in- 
terest of a fallen race? If such a thing were possible 
of accomplishment, then both the lost world, and, my 
pen shrinks from vriting it — God our Savior would be 
gone and gone forever. No ! you would not, you could 
not, consent to such a catastrophe. Then settle this 
once for all: God must be God, just as he is, and 
as he has revealed himself in the sacred writings, oth- 
erwise the salvation revealed and freely offered in those 
writings, to a lost and undone race would be an utter 
impossibility. 

(2) If you will devote only a few days in earnest, 
prayerful study of the New Testament — it's a small 
book — and in reverent reflection upon the revelation 
there made of the long suffering exercised, of the treas- 
ures poured out, the suffering experienced, the hard- 
ships endured, the shame and contumely submitted to, 
the sacrifice made by God our Savior, in order that he 
might reach and save a lost world, you will be pro- 
foundly convinced, that never since the day and the 
hour when he bowed his head, and yielded up his spirit, 

56 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

with the cry, *'It is finished," have there ever been 
among men, any love and labor, any toil and hardships, 
suffering and sacrifice, worthy of mention. 

Ah! It is when men see the mighty sweep of God^s 
goodness and love and mercy, that the great deep of 
their hearts is all broken up, and their rebellion ceases. 
So often so many of us need to pray: *'0 Lord God, 
our heavenly Father, we would not come to the study 
of thy Word in the spirit of the critic, which alas is too 
often, if not always, the spirit of pride and self-conceit ; 
but we would come in the spirit of the dependent, pen- 
itent soul, which befits the mightiest among men.'* 

It has already been said, but the statement needs to 
be emphasized, that the condition precedent of a prop- 
er knowledge of Christian doctrine is a proper knowl- 
edge of God; and the Master teaches us that the first 
thing here is submission to the divine will. *'If any man 
wills to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." It 
is not to "the wise and prudent," but *Ho babes," the 
Father reveals wisdom, hidden from the world. Com- 
plete submission to the will of God, is the point of de- 
parture for the fullest knowledge of the revelation 
of God. 

The faith which acknowledges God immutable, and 
ascribes to him, what he claims for himself, infinite 
knowledge, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, truth, rests 

57 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

in perfect peace and confidence, respecting all the 
Word and works of God. "Thou wilt keep him in per- 
fect peace whose mind is stayed on thee;" and the rea- 
son assigned is ''because he trusteth in thee." Let the 
reader turn to the 91st Psalm and carefully consider 
it, in connection with the quotation from Isa. 26:3. 

Furthermore the methods which God employs are the 
wisest and best; and for the very highest reason as- 
signable, they are God's methods. ''The ordinances of 
Jehovah are true and righteous altogether" — R. V. 
"The works of his hands are truth and justice. All 
his precepts are sure. They are established forever 
and ever. They are made in truth and uprightness." 
Psalm 111:7-10. 

In a preceding article, objections which are urged 
against the doctrine of Election have been briefly noted. 
I wish now to impress upon my readers, especially 
upon those who are young Christians, and more par- 
ticularly upon young ministers of the gospel two or 
three thoughts concerning objections to any doctrine 
that is clearly supported by the Word of God. I use 
the phrase, "supported by the Word of God," advised- 
ly; for neither preaching nor teaching consists in a 
string of quotations, isolated passages, from the Scrip- 
tures. 

1. It is a grave defect in any man's method of pro- 
cedure simply to collect together a number of objec- 

58 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE S> 

tions to a doctrine, as for example, election, and ar- 
ray these objections before his readers or hearers, in- 
stead of examining with care the evidences upon which 
the teacher of the doctrine relies in support of his 
faith. Such a method of procedure injures both the 
objector and those whom he may influence as well; be- 
cause it is as unscientific as it is unfair. It is very 
easy, it requires no thought, to conjure up objections to 
some of the most fundamental and clearly revealed and 
attested facts and doctrines of the Word of God. 

2. When any doctrine, e. g., election or predestina- 
tion, is taught either from the pulpit or through the 
printed page, and the teaching is supported by the 
Word of God, the teacher is under no greater obligation 
to answer the objections to the doctrine than is the 
objector himself. Nor, because some men conjure up 
objections to the doctrine of God's sovereignty, as that 
is evidenced in election and predestination, be they 
Christian or not, are they relieved of the obliga- 
tion, divinely imposed, to study and to believe the doc- 
trine. There are heaven-imposed duties which belong 
to all men alike; and one of these duties is to believe 
God. I do not forget ** there are diversities of gifts;" 
nor do I fail to recall that these gifts are from the 
' ' same spirit. ' ' 

These gifts include "apostles, prophets, evangelists, 
pastors and teachers." But this fact does in no wise 

59 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

signify that the evangelist, because he is not profi- 
cient in exegesis or exposition, is privileged to scout 
the ''hard doctrines." On the contrary all apostles, 
prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, if they 
would honor their calling and glorify God with their 
gifts, must ever keep in mind that their work, varied as 
it may appear, was designed to make actual one com- 
mon, glorious end, namely: "The perfecting of the 
saints, unto the work of the ministry, unto the build- 
ing up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto 
the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God." Eph. 4:12-13. 

If this paradox of election and free agency were not 
found in the Scriptures, the class of preachers to which 
I have the privilege and honor to belong, might well 
be silenced. In this connection I quote from one of 
the acutest thinkers and clearest writers after whom 
I have ever read that I might learn. He says: "This 
paradox of election and grace, so far from being in any 
sense without a parallel, is merely a single phase of the 
great mystery of divine sovereignty in relation to hu- 
man will. A passage from St. Peter's Pentecostal ser- 
mon may be cited to illustrate my meaning: 'Him, 
being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore- 
knowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked 
hands have crucified and slain.' The murderers of 
Christ were acting in fulfilment of a divine decree, and 

60 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

yet their deeds were really and absolutely their own. 
Theirs were wicked hands, and guilt of necessity sup- 
poses the action of an independent will. When this 
case can be explained, that they who set up the cross on 
Calvary, were fulfilling a divine purpose, though acting 
in direct antagonism to the divine will, the clew will 
have been, found to every difficulty here alluded to.'* 

Now in order to enforce the truth, found through- 
out the Word of God, let the passage from the Pente- 
costal sermon be divided thus: **Him being delivered 
ly the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" 
— God's decree, plainly declared. 

"You have taken, and by wicked hands have cruci- 
fied and slain" — man's free agency, just as plainly 
declared. 

Moreover the sermon as a whole unquestionably 
teaches that by this mysterious combination spiritual 
blessings — aye salvation itself — not otherwise possible, 
were brought to a lost and ruined race — yes, to the 
murderers themselves. This great mystery, revealed 
here, has been revealed before. Nor can we ignore or 
overlook it, except to the injury of ourselves and of 
those who are taught by us. What is that mystery ? It 
is this: ''God's purpose, moving upon a higher plane, 
often countervails the evil purposes of men, moving 
upon a lower plane ; and so resulting in spiritual bless- 
ings to mankind, not otherwise possible." Lord, 

61 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTBINES. 

quell whatever of riot thou seest in any of our hearts, 
and bring us, with bowed and reverent heads to the 
attitude of the Master, when he said : ' ' Even so. Fath- 
er, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." And so, in- 
stead of complaining at anything which God does or 
teaches, let us gladly accept the mysteries as well as 
the plain and easy things, which we may be able to 
understand and explain. 

The world needs to be taught these mysteries, these 
^'deep doctrines" — yes, men of sinful, rebellious 
hearts need the teaching. Think of Peter's audience 
on the day of the Pentecost. There were the men who 
killed ''the Prince," that is the author ''of life." 
Only let the preacher be filled with the Holy Spirit, and 
no man is fit to teach in the name of our Lord without 
the Spirit of God, and these "deep doctrines," will be 
used with mighty effect. Forget not that it is the 
Word of God, applied by the Spirit of God, which con- 
victs men "of sin, and of righteousness and of judg- 
ment," when they will cry out, "What shall we do?" 
Too many of us, I fear, have been preaching to meet 
what the world demands, instead of preaching what 
God commands. 0, the tragedy of it ! 

Again Christians need to be taught these "deep doc- 
trines." So often does our Father in heaven use these 
mysteries, the "hard sayings," to break down the last 
vestige of oppositon in our hearts to his blessed will. 

62 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

The doctrine of election is not the object of our faith 
In order to our salvation; but it is sometimes, I doubt 
not, the test of faith. There are many Christians who 
long for the conscious assurance of their acceptance 
with God, our Father. May it not be that they have 
been robbing themselves of the long coveted experience 
just at this point? In an unguarded hour, they have 
become absorbed with themselves instead of with God, 
his purpose, his service and his glory. It is a greater 
anxiety to have God on their side than to be upon 
his side. 0, so often, ''We are willing to owe many 
things to God, only not ourselves and our destiny ab- 
solutely. ' * 

I know a preacher of the gospel, who in the early 
days of his ministry, was pronounced in his opposi- 
tion to the doctrine of election. He preached with 
vehemence that the issue of salvation was dependent 
upon human volition. On a Monday morning, after 
having preached against the sovereignty of God in the 
bestowment of his grace the preceding day, this 
young preacher, all alone and in a deep wood, whither 
he had purposely gone, kneeled to pray. But he could 
not pray; he was dumb. The preaching he had done 
on the day preceding came vividly before him — he wept, 
he sobbed out, yes aloud. "0, God, I yield; I am ut- 
terly ignorant, and yet I have called in question thy 
wisdom and thy way of saving immortal souls ; forgive 

63 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE S> 

me for the folly and the rebellion of my sinful heart. 
Thy will is supreme, and it ought to be, and I yield to 
it. ' ' Many days had not passed, ere that young preach- 
er 's soul was singing for very joy; when again he 
kneeled in prayer, and the promise was made: ** Never 
again, Father, will I oppose the election of grace. 
Thy will and thy way is blessed, most holy, the wisest 
and the best.'* 



64 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ATONEMENT AND FAITH 
IN JUSTIFICATION. 



By W. L. Pickard, D.D., LL.D. 

The writer has been asked for an article on the above 
subject. Either the Atonement, or Faith, or Justifica- 
tion, is a large theme, bnt combined, they are over- 
whelming. 

For nineteen hundred years more thought has been 
given to the New Testament than to any other book, 
and to Christ than to any other person. The overwhelm- 
ing testimony of those who have carefully studied the 
Bible, both the Old and the New Testament, is to the 
effect that the Bible is genuine and authentic. This 
consensus may be especially emphasized with refer- 
ence to the New Testament. Those who deny this have 
not made out their case, and those who have not stud- 
ied it carefully are not entitled to a judgment on the 
question. 

The central figure of the entire Bible and the over- 
whelming character of the New Testament is Christ. 
All of the Old Testament, in various great ways, point- 
ed to him and was based on him, his work, and his 
sufferings. In the New Testament he is found every- 

65 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

where as its throbbing heart-life. Take him out of 
that book and you have no New Testament. He is its 
essence. 

Connected with him, as set forth in that book, is his 
death. His death, therefore, is a legitimate study of 
that book. What was, and is, the significance of his 
death? 

Christendom generally has held that Christ's death 
was an atonement for sin, that, in some great sense, he 
died to save human beings from their sins. Did he die 
to make an atonement, or did he not ? We wish to know 
what the Bible teaches on this subject. It must be set- 
tled by the teaching of the Scriptures. When we find 
what they teach on this subject, there is but one of two 
things to do; either to accept this Scripture teaching, 
or to reject the Word of God as authority. 

Atonement means at-one-ment. This implies that be- 
cause of something man had done there was a chasm 
between him and God, and that something must be done 
to reconcile man to God. The Bible tells us that SIN 
separated us from God. With this agree the consensus 
of experience and 'judgment. Sin made a chasm be- 
tween man and God. It was man's sin that made it. 
If the chasm is to be bridged, God must bridge it. To 
do this, in his love, God gave Christ to die for the 
ungodly. Christ's death did not cause God to love 
US; God gave us Christ because he already loved us. 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

"God willeth not the death of any that dieth, but pre- 
ferreth that all should turn to him and live." There- 
fore, God loves the sinner and desires to save him, but 
hates sin. The sinner must give up his sins or go down 
with them, for God and sin can never be reconciled ; that 
is impossible as long as God is holy. But the sinner 
may be reconciled to God on a basis that God, in his 
love, has declared. *'God commendeth his love toward 
us, in that, wliile we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
the ungodly. " " Christ died for our sins and rose for 
our justification." "The Lamlb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world." Christ died "in our 
stead;" he died "on our behalf." "And I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 
This he said, signifying what death he should die." 

The atonement originated in the mind and nature of 
God, and was not worked out by man. It was a neces- 
sity, if God and the sinner were ever to dwell together 
in peace, love and fellowship. Man could not meet this 
necessity, and did not; God could meet it, and did, by 
the death of Christ. It was God's way — the way of ex- 
pressing his love in the means of the sinner's salvation. 
The death of Christ, then, in the New Testament is set 
forth as the expiation of sin which God made for us 
by and through Christ. 

The law of God given on Sinai neither contemplates 
nor involves an atonement, though other Scriptures, 

67 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

from Abel's lamb to Christ, do suggest it. The law ex- 
pressed that standard which God set forth as wholly 
right. Its violation deserves punishment. The atone- 
ment, therefore, is above the law. Law contemplates 
absolute righteousness and punishment for disobedi- 
ence. Atonement represents love graciously flowing 
from God's heart to the guilty. It is not contrary to 
law, it does not lower the standard of the law, it does not 
set law aside. It upholds the law, and is the basis of blot- 
ting out the sin of the guilty law-breaker, and lifting 
the guilty back into guiltlessness. The law stands; the 
guilty sinner may be cleansed and placed back in fel- 
lowship with God. God's holiness is expressed in the 
law, the sinner's guilt is expressed in his own sin, 
and the expiation of the sinner's guilt is expressed in 
Christ's death. The sinner's salvation is expressed, 
then, in his love of God and of the righteous law of 
God. By means of grace in Christ, God and the sinner 
may come into fellowship again. 

"God sent forth his Son, made under the law, to re- 
deem them that were under the law." The law stands. 
Man sinned and incurred condemnation, he can not lift 
himself back into holiness. He is condemned justly — 
sin is in him, a part of him, his very essence. There is 
nothing he can do to make himself holy. He is guilty, 
punishment must follow — for the law has its just pen- 
alty. Christ voluntarily assumes the sinner's place — 

68 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES, 

steps into his place legally — Christ not being a sinner 
in fact, but in all counted such under the law. Man 
said, by choice and act, the law does not suit me, I will 
not obey it. He dishonored it, but Jesus, under the 
law, magnified the law. He declared that the law was 
good and holy, and that he came to do the will of God 
as written in the law. He was born under it, lived un- 
der it, and died under it. Thus he showed to man, an- 
gels, demons and the universe, that the law was holy. 
**He, himself, bore our sins in his own body on the 
tree.*' He suffered the results of our sins — guiltless in 
fact, yet counted as guilty before the law in our stead, 
dying for us. His death was in our stead. 

Again, "Christ died for us," "he gave himself for 
us," "he gave himself a ransom for all." In the light 
of all these passages, what is the true explanation of his 
death? Did he die for our benefit? Yes, certainly. Did 
his death set up a great moral influence ? Certainly. But 
are these all? No, nor are they the essence of these 
passages. Jesus did not die as a martyr ; he died as the 
sinner's substitute. These passages mean substitution, 
else they mean nothing. Stephen, Paul, and countless 
saints have died as martyrs, and in some real sense these 
all died for our benefit, and from their deaths have gone 
forth into the world great moral influences. But not one 
of them died as an atoning sacrifice. Jesus died as an 
atoning substitute for sinful man. We are forced to this 

69 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL D-OCTRINES. 

explanation, or else to distort or ignore the Scriptures, 
denying them their plainest meaning, or repudiating 
their authority altogether. The essence, therefore, of 
Christ's death is in its sacrificial nature. He was our 
substitute under the law. He takes our place, and not a 
critic on earth, nor a demon in hell, can find one fault 
in our substitute. 

It has been already suggested that Christ's death, as 
an atonement, was a necessity ; but we are not to under- 
stand by this that God was compelled by law to have 
Christ die for us. Christ did not have to die for an- 
gels or demons. He might have left man without an 
atonement. Millions of men have lived so brutally that 
we have often marveled that God took note of the race 
at all after sin entered into the race of man. If no 
sinner had ever been redeemed, the throne of God 
would still have been lighted with the light of God's 
majesty and holiness. The necessity of Christ as a sub- 
stitute is in the fact that God could not consistently 
with his nature have offered to man salvation without 
an expiation, for justice is as divine as mercy, and jus- 
tice and mercy had to meet at the altar of sacrifice. 
This is in keeping with the awfulness of sin, on the one 
side, and the splendors of God's nature on the other. 

God punishes sin because sin is essentially wicked and 
offensive to God. Sin is the expression of the spirit of 

70 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

evil and malignity, which would, if it could do so, mur- 
der God himself. Few of us, possibly, apprehend the 
awfulness of sin. Ood's wrath is revealed against all 
sin. All sin deserves to be punished; this is God's re- 
vealed view of it. God can neither excuse it nor com- 
promise with it. Hence the necessity of the atonement 
by substitution. Thus again it is seen that God's nature 
requires that sin shall be punished. When the state 
punishes a criminal it does so, primarily, because of the 
crime committed, and secondarily, to protect society. 
God punishes the guilty for gxiilt's sake. He did not 
have to punish that punishment might be a deterrent, 
for all were guilty. Again it comes back to this: God's 
nature and the nature of sin make it necessary that sin 
shall be punished. But you shrink back and say, why 
did God have his sinless Son to die, the just for the un- 
just? But, by the will of God, Christ did die, did he 
not? Very well, then. If he did not die as a substitute 
for sinners, for what did he die? Certainly not for a 
moral spectacle; surely not simply as a tragedy that 
hymns and oratorios might be written, based on his 
sufferings. This would have been mockery. To him, 
who knew the depths of sin, it was necessary. 

Justification. — ^**He died for our sins and rose for 
our justijfication. " ''How shall a man be just with 
God?'* Justification and condemnation are opposites. 
To be condemned is awful ; to be justified is glorious. "It 

71 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

is Christ that died, yea rather that has risen again and 
ascended unto the right hand of God." What then is 
justification? It is an act of God by which he declares 
the sinner justified, or righteous before God. The justi- 
fied one stands before the law of God declared to be 
guiltless. The justified one is treated as though he had 
never bepn guilty of the violation of the law. Though 
the heart of the justified one is involved in this matter, 
justification declared the state or standing of the man 
rather than the conditon of his heart. He is free from 
all the penalty of sin — counted and declared just be- 
fore God. 

This is a glorious condition. How does it come to 
pass? Is it by works? "All have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God." "Not by works, lest any man 
should boast." Merit is neither in the sinner nor his 
works. He cannot work himself into a state of right- 
eousness; if so, Christ's death was a useless tragedy. 
Perfect obedience and perfect work cannot come from 
an imperfect, sinful heart. There has lived but one per- 
fect man, and lie was more than man — Christ. Justifica- 
tion, then, cannot come by the works of the imperfect. 
Every human mouth is dumb before the law. For the 
law speaketh to them that are under the law, and all 
are guilty. The law cannot both condemn and justify, 
and the Scripture says, "By the deeds of the law shall 

72 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTEINES. 

no flesh be justified." The natural man can never keep 
the law perfectly nor love God perfectly, and both are 
required. 

Repentance is a great thing, insisted upon by the 
prophets, Christ, and the apostles, but repentance can- 
not justify a man from sin. Sorrow for sin cannot blot 
sin out, neither free one from sin. If there were noth- 
ing else in connection with repentance, it would deepen 
into remorse — an eternal hell in the soul. Neither in 
human, nor divine law, does repentance atone for crime. 
It is an expression of sorrow following guilt, which may 
be admitted to be better than hardness of heart. But it 
does not atone for sin, nor justify the sinner. 

How then is the sinner justified? The Scriptures 
answer. "Being justified freely — by his grace, through 
the redemption that is in Jesus." "Much more then, 
being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from 
wrath through him." "For he hath made him to be sin 
for us, who knew no sin." "He was delivered for our 
offenses and raised for our justification. * ' 

It is clear from these Scriptures that the obedience and 
death of Christ are the foundations of man's justifi- 
cation. Jesus freely assumed and fully satisfied every 
condition of his relation to the law in the sinner's 
place, and drank to the dregs, its awful cup. In his 
last cries of agony, law still stood in spotless moral 
integrity, its majesty upheld and its righteousness 

73 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTR I N E S. 

vindicated to the uttermost. But when Christ finished 
all obedience to the law, mercy and justice met in 
peace at that wondrous cross on which the Prince of 
glory died.' It was God's way — and there was no oth- 
er way of salvation. The atoning death of Christ, 
then, is the basis of man's justification. 

How then does the atonement become efficient in the 
sinner's justification? It is by faith in Christ — ^not mere 
intellectual belief, but the heart's assent, the moral 
nature of a man laying hold of the Lamb of God. 
"Abraham believed in God and it was counted to him 
for righteousness." *'He that believeth on him is not 
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned 
already." ''And by him all that believe are justified 
from all things from which ye could not be justified by 
the law of Moses." ''And being found in him, not 
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, 
but that which is through the faith of Christ — the right- 
eousness which is of God by faith." 

So it is seen that the atonement is the basis of the 
sinner's justification, and faith is the instrumentality 
by which the atonement becomes efficient in one's justi- 
fication. 

Christ is worthy of our intellectual belief and our 
moral allegiance. We are commanded to believe in 
him. Even though faith is the instrumentality by which 
one is justified, there is no merit in the man who exer- 

74 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

eises this faith. It is all of faith that it might be by 
grace. ''By grace are ye saved through faith, and that 
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. ' * " God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son that who- 
soever believeth on him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." Therefore the atonement is sufficient 
for every sinner, but it is efficient for those only wha 
believe. Can you think of a penitent believer not being 
saved and justified? On the other hand, can you think 
of an impenitent, hard-hearted, godless one as being 
justified before God? These questions suggest power- 
fully their own answers. 

Christ's sacrificial death shows God's hatred of sin. 
His justification of the sinner magnifies God's justice and 
mercy. The faith exercised shows that the justified one 
is dead to the love of sin, and alive unto God. In such 
an one the egotism of sin is being canceled out and the 
piety of sanctification is in process of growth. He is 
out from under the penalty of the law; he is in a state 
of grace, and is headed for glory. 

''E'er since by faith I saw the stream 

Thy flowing wounds supply ; 
Redeeming grace has been my theme, 
And shaUbe tilll die." 



75 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

'*Then in a nobler, sweeter song, 

I'll sing thy power to save. 
When this poor, lisping, stamm'ring tongue 
Lies silent in the grave. ' ' 



76 



CHAPTER V. 

REGENERATION IN RELATION TO 
REPENTANCE AND FAITH. 



By E. J. Forrester, D.D. 

At once, it is observed that there are three terms to 
which no ambiguity must be allowed to cling. 

It may be a surprise to some readers that the word 
'* regeneration" occurs in our English Bible only twice. 
In one of these passages (Titus 3:5, "The washing of 
regeneration") it evidently refers to a spiritual renewal 
of the individual which brings him into the circle of 
God's saving grace in Christ Jesus. In the other place 
(Mat. 19:28, **In the renegeration, when the Son of 
man shall sit in the throne of his glory") the refer- 
ence is to that "restoration of all things" which is to 
accompany the final consummation, "when the Son of 
man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels 
with him," and "shall sit in the throne of his glory." 

Now, for purposes of this article, we must un- 
derstand "regeneration" in the former of these two 
senses, viz.: as that spiritual renewal of the individ- 
ual by which he is brought into the circle of God's 
saving grace. We shall deal with the spiritual fact to 
which Jesus directed the attention of Nicodemus when 
he said: "Except one be born anew, he cannot see, 
the kingdom of God" (Jno. 3:3). 

77 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE'S. 

In the New Testament there are two words rendered, 
^'repent/' by King James. These are "Metanoeo" 
and "Metamelomai." The two ideas represented come 
to view in a single passage, 2 Cor. 7:10, "Repentance 
unto salvation not to be repented of.'' The last clause, 
''Not to be repented of," ought to be considered 
''without regret." In this paper we are dealing not 
with what is simply sorrow, or regret, but with a spir- 
itual fact more far-reaching and potent. It is the fact 
to which the verb "Metanoeo" and the noun "Meta- 
noia" set forth. It is the fact to which Jesus referred 
when he said: "Thus it is written that the Christ 
should suffer and rise again from the dead the third 
day; and that repentance and remission of sins should 
be preached in his name unto all the nations" (Luke 
24:46). It is that spiritual fact which involves and 
comprehends such a change of mind, such a reversal 
of attitude, towards God on one hand and sin on the 
other, as to mean a definite and determined and final 
break with sin, and an unreserved allegiance to God. 

With one exception the word "faith" in our Eng- 
lish New Testament stands for "pistis." The one ex- 
ception is found in Heb. 10 : 23, where the American re- 
visers have properly corrected King James and have 
put "hope" instead of faith, seeing that the word in 
the Greek is "Elpis," "hope," and not "pistis," 
^ 'faith." Here we are concerned with "pistis," 

78 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

^'faith," as it stands for an attitude of the soul to- 
wards Christ — that attitude which is related to salva- 
tion as indicated in such Scriptures as these: ''Apart 
from the law a righteousness of God hath been mani- 
fested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, 
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus 
Christ"; '*We reckon, therefore, that a man is justified 
by faith;" "By grace are ye saved through faith" 
(Rom. 3:21; 3-28; Eph. 2:8). The attitude here indi- 
cated as the ground of justification is one in which the 
whole being, the whole life, of the redeemed sinner is 
linked to, identified with, the life of the Christ, whose 
righteousness, by virtue of such identification, becomes 
the justification of the one so identified. It is a mo- 
mentous transaction. The grace of God on one side 
— how rich it is! and the implications for holiness and 
service on the part of the believer — how great are they ! 

The group of terms which we have been discussing are 
thus brought into connection with a definite group of 
spiritual facts ; and now it is desired to indicate the in- 
ter-relations of these facts. The best performance of 
that part of the task probably requires that more should 
be said about the facts themselves. 

Regeneration, the birth from above. What is it? 
How is it effected ? Is it entirely a divine performance ? 
Or is any human element present ? Jesus says that it is 
"**of water and spirit." Paul, to Titus, calls it ''the 

79 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTKINES. 

washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spir- 
it." Without taking time to discuss the matter, we 
may be allowed to express the exegetical opinion, in 
passing, that "water" and "washing" in these passages 
do not refer to baptism as a means of regeneration. If, 
however, we turn to Jas. 1 : 18 and 1 Pet. 1 : 23, we shall 
find reference to means used to effect regeneration. 
James: "Of his own will he brought us forth by the 
word of truth." Peter: "Having been begotten again, 
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the 
Word of God which liveth and abideth forever." In 
the verse next following the apostle shows that by the 
"Word of God" he meant "the word of good tidings 
which was preached" — that is, the gospel of salvation. 
This bringing of the truth of God into connection' with 
the new birth would seem to allow for human response ; 
in other words, the Scriptural doctrine of regeneration 
involves both human and divine participation, as do 
other great spiritual transactions. The designation of 
this transaction emphasizes the divine factor. 

Repentance, as we have seen, is such a change of atti- 
tude towards God and sin as involves a radical break 
with sin and a whole-hearted allegiance to God. This 
is, by no means, entirely human. "Him did God exalt 
with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior to give 
repentance to Israel and remission of sins" (Acts 5 : 31). 
Here repentance is represented as a divine gift; and no 

80 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

man comes to that change of attitude without divine 
help. 

Faith is such belief in one 's own sinful and lost condi- 
tion and in the divine Saviorship of Jesus as leads to 
trusting wholly to him for salvation and to yielding 
completely to him as Lord of one's life. The emphasis 
here, as in the case of repentance, is laid upon the hu- 
man side of the transaction ; but it is not, by any means, 
exclusively human. "Looking unto Jesus the Author 
and Perfecter of our faith," is a divine word which 
takes account of what we all know by experience 
— that it is only when help comes from above that the 
faith-attitude is assumed. 

Here, then, we have three great spiritual facts at the 
threshold of the Christian life. Regeneration is a re- 
newal of the sinner by the Spirit of God, in the use of 
his truth, which appeals to man, and so allows room, 
and calls for man's response. Repentance is such a 
change of attitude towards God and sin as involves a 
radical break with sin and a whole-hearted allegiance to 
God — a change which is not, and cannot be, effected 
apart from divine agency. Faith is such conviction of 
one 's own sinful helplessness and of the all-sufficient sav- 
ing power of Jesus as involves complete reliance on Je- 
sus as Redeemer and complete submission to him as 
Lord — an attitude which does not, and can not, come 
apart from divine power. 

81 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINTES. 

These three great spiritual facts are so bound togeth- 
er that it would seem to be vain to attempt to separate 
them except in thought. They form a mighty dynamic 
spiritual complex, upon which depends the transforma- 
tion of individuals and the whole world. 



82 



I 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM— WHAT IT 
IS AND ITS MEANING. 



By D. W. Key, D.D. 

Christian baptism stands at the entrance upon the 
Christian life. It is set forth in the New Testament as 
the first of the two ordinances — baptism and the Lord's 
Supper — to be observed by all Christians by the com- 
mand of Christ. 

1. "What is Christian baptism? Two things are in- 
volved. First, a Christian; second, baptism — ^^a bap- 
tized Christian being the resultant. Where there is 
lacking either a Christian or a baptism there can be no 
Christian baptism. The Christian comes to Christ be- 
fore coming to baptism or to church membership before 
good works, before any rite or ceremony. The Chris- 
tian is one who knows, trusts, loves and follows Christ. 
Only believers are commanded to be baptized. This ex- 
cludes all infants and others who are unable to have 
moral judgments because of unsound mind. There is 
no example of infant baptism in the New Testament. 

Christ commands his followers to be baptized. He 
was baptized by John in the river Jordan. He sets the 
example for us to follow. In the great commission 
among his last words he sent forth his disciples to 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

preach, baptize and teach. In obedience to this com- 
mand, three thousand were baptized at Pentecost. Phil- 
ip, Panl and others baptized believers. What is bap- 
tism? Baptists hold that Christian baptism is the im- 
mersion of a believer in Christ in water into the name 
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. No im- 
mersion, no baptism. Pouring, or sprinkling is not im- 
mersion and therefore not baptism according to the New 
Testament. ''No modern Greek lexicons give any oth- 
er meaning for baptizo than dip. Scholarship today has 
standardized the lexicons for universal use and the Bap- 
tist position is completely triumphant. A man who to- 
day argues that baptizo means to sprinkle or pour 
throws suspicion on his scholarship and is on the de- 
fensive" (Prof. A. T. Robertson, Greek scholar and au- 
thor). Prof. Thayer, of Harvard University, in his stan- 
dard Greek-English Lexicon: "Baptizo:!. Properly to 
dip repeatedly, to immerge to submerge." Dr. Marcus 
Dods, a leading Scotland Presbyterian scholar, in Dic- 
tionary of Christ and the Gospels: ''Baptism, a rite 
wherein by immersion in water the participant symbol- 
izes and signalizes his transition from an impure to a 
pure life, his death to a past he abandons, and his new 
birth to a future he desires. . . . The full significance 
of the rite would have been lost had immersion not been 
practiced." John Calvin (Presbyterian) says: **The 
word baptize, however, signifies to immerse, and it is 

84 



TEN FUNDAMENT A L_Djj_rviM^^^^ 

certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient 
church." Dean Stanley (Episcopalian, Church of Eng- 
land) : *'For the first thirteen centuries the almost uni- 
versal practice of baptism was that of which we read in 
the New Testament and which is the very meaning of 
the word baptize — that those who were baptized were 
plunged, submerged, immersed in the water. The sub- 
stitution of sprinkling for immersion must to many at 
the time, as to the Baptists now, have seemed a most 
dangerous innovation," 

Dr. Conant published a book a few years ago giving 
the Greek quotations from all Greek literature exhaust- 
ively, covering a period of two thousand years, and de- 
clared that not an example had been found in which the 
word baptizo had any other meaning than to immerse or 
submerge. 

Some years ago this question was sent to the Outlook, 
Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor, New York: "Which do you 
consider the two strongest books on the Baptist con- 
troversy, one on each side?" Answer: "On the mean- 
ing of the Greek word baptizo, and the original mode of 
administering baptism, the Outlook, not having cared 
about it, has formed no judgment about the merits of 
the disputants. The controversy no longer exists 
among scholars. In a technical point of view the Bap- 

85 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

tists have won the case." Prof. A. T. Robertson, one 
of the most noted Greek scholars in the world, in his 
tract on Modern Scholarship and the form of baptism, 
says in closing: ''"With this showing of modern schol- 
arship Baptists properly claim to have won their con- 
tention beyond the shadow of a donbt. The New Testa- 
ment uses rantizo for sprinkle and eccheo for pour, but 
neither of these occurs in the New Testament for the act 
of baptism, but always baptize is used, which means 
dip." 

2. What is the meaning of Christian baptism? It 
is a piece of externalism. It is a symbol, a picture. It 
is a test and an expression of loyalty to Christ. It 
creates nothing, but it symbolizes everything subjective 
and objective in regeneration. It is a profession of 
faith in Christ. It proclaims but does not create the 
faith in Christ. 

(1). Christian baptism symbolizes the death and res- 
urrection of Christ. 

(2). It symbolizes the believer's death to sin and res- 
urrection to newness of life. 

(3). It symbolizes the new birth and purification 
from sin. 

(4). It symbolizes the union of the believer with 
Christ. 



86 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

(5). It symbolizes the brotherhood of believers in 
Christ. 

Romans 6 : 3-4 justifies (1 and 2) — "All who were bap- 
tized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We 
were buried therefore with him through baptism into 
death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead 
.... so we also might walk in newness of life.'* 

Baptism is a burial and presupposes death. The new- 
ness of life is imperishable, unaging and unfading. 

Gal. 3:27 justifies (4) — ''For as many of you as were 
baptized into Christ did put on Christ." The beKever 
is in Christ, has put on Christ as a garment. 

In proof of (5) read 1 Cor. 12: 13— "For in one Spirit 
were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or 
Greeks, bond or free; and Eph. 4:4-6 — "There is one 
body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one 
hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
one God and Father of all." This is a declaration of 
the fact of the oneness of believers. Baptism involves 
the gracious experience of the saving power of Christ 
and also the doctrine of the new life and the new rela- 
tions issuing from that gracious experience, but it has 
nothing to do with the origination of that experience or 
of the new life and its relations and obligations. Loy- 



87 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

alty to Christ requires that we keep his commandmeiits. 
This forbids that we set them aside for convenience, for 
personal comfort, or to please others. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD. 



By Geo. W. Truett, D.D. 

Whose is this Supper? — What is your answer to this 
question: Whose is this Supper? There can be but 
one mind concerning it, if we allow God's Word to an- 
swer it. Matthew, Mark and Luke all speak of it, and 
this is their unvarying testimony: "And Jesus took 
bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the dis- 
ciples and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And like- 
wise he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he 
gave it to them saying, This is my blood of the new tes- 
tament which is shed for many. ' ' The question, then, is 
settled as to whose is tho Supper. It does not belong to 
Moses or to the prophets or to the apostles. 

This is the Lord's Supper. It is his, not only be- 
cause he instituted it, but also because he appointed it 
as a memorial of himself. Then since Jesus instituted 
it and for the specific purpose just named, isn't it be- 
yond every question his table? He so designates it in 
every reference made in his Word. Paul, in writing 
to the church at Corinth, said : ' ' When ye come togeth- 
er therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lord's 
Supper." (1 Cor. 11:20.) Paul is here explaining the 
deep significance of this Supper. It is not to be par- 



TEN FUNDAMEN.TAL DOCTRINES. 

ticipated in as a feast, for the gratification of bodily ap- 
petite. They have houses to eat and drink in. This is 
not a feast, but the Lord's Supper, set in his church 
by the Lord, as a memorial of himself. Again, he says 
to the same church: "Ye cannot drink the cup of the 
Lord, and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of 
the Lord's table, and the table of devils." He is dis- 
abusing their minds of the seriously perverted notions 
that had crept in among them regarding this ordi- 
nance. 

When our Lord instituted it and gave it to the eleven, 
his language leaves no doubt that this Supper in every 
sense is his. This is his language: "I appoint unto 
you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; 
that ye may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom." 
(Luke 22:29, 30.) Plainly it is here stated by him that 
this table is his. Clear as the light are all the Scriptures 
that this Supper is the Lord's. If, then, this Supper is 
the Lord's, he alone must prescribe the rules regulating 
and governing it. He alone is to say the what and how 
and why and where concerning it. Surely we are all 
agreed on this. Nothing else could be reasonable. 

Your neighbor proposes to give a dining. It is for 
him to make every regulation, specification, and limita- 
tion concerning it. These regulations he carefully makes 
and commits to his servants. What are these servants 
to do? There is nothing else for them to do except to 

90 



T.EN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

follow literally the instructions of their master. They 
cannot legitimately say: ''Now, this is not our table- 
it is our master's — it is not for us therefore to say who 
shall or who shall not come to the table — every man in 
the community must pass on this matter for himself." 
To suppose this ease is at the same time to suggest 
its absurdity. Those servants are literally and fully to 
follow instructions, just as the trust was committed ta 
them by their master. 

So it is with Christ's people concerning his Supper. 
They have no authority or option in this matter. This 
is not their table. This is not man's table. This is the 
Lord's table. If this were man's table, then to it he 
might invite his friends according to his opinions and 
tastes and inclinations. He might give the invitation 
whenever and wherever and to whomsoever he would. 
But he must remember evermore that this is the Lord's 
table. Human sentiment therefore is not to govern it. 
Long-established customs are not to govern it. Preju- 
dices, tastes, or feelings are not to govern it. Will you 
say that a command or an appointment of God may be 
governed and decided by the people as they would regu- 
late some public enterprise? Then you forget that this 
book is as unchanging and unchangeable as God. 
You may as consistently talk about your right to change 
the doctrine of regeneration as to talk about your right 
to change the place and purpose of this Supper. He 

91 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

wlio placed it in his church has alone the indefeasable 
right to prescribe every regulation for its government. 
He either has or has not done this. 

If he has, then any talk about ''courtesy" and "liber- 
ality" concerning it surely cannot be in place. Shall 
we talk of "liberality" concerning things that are not 
ours? That neighbor cannot wisely talk of "liberality" 
concerning his neighbor's dining. The latter neighbor 
must be the judge of his own table. He is to pass upon 
its every regulation and limitation, and with it the out- 
side neighbor has no authority whatever. So this table 
is our Lord's, and if he has put regulations and limita- 
tions upon it — and that this he has done cannot be de- 
nied — then his regulations are not only wise, but their 
strict observance is vitally necessary to his own honor 
and the well-being of his churches. For God's people to 
do otherwise is to be unfaithful to him and to be treason- 
able with the trust that he has committed unto them. 
As well might they talk about the right of changing the 
laws of nature as the changing of the two ordinances, 
from the place and purpose given them in the churches, 
by the Divine Law-giver, Jesus Christ. Then Christ in- 
stituted it, and this Supper is his. 

The Lord's Gift to His Disciples. 

Our second question is. To whom did our Lord give 
the Supper? For whom did he intend it? He certain- 
ly gave it to somebody. To whom? Did he give it to 

92 



TJ]N FUNDAMENTAL D C T B I N E S. 

his enemies? To those who would sneer at it and per- 
vert it ? To men yet blind and lost in sin ? To ask these 
questions is at the same time to answer them. Our Lord 
gave this Supper to his disciples, and not to the world. 
There is no disagreement among Christian people here. 
We are all agred that the Lord gave this ordinance to 
his own people and not to the world. 

Then the first prerequisite in coming to this table is 
that one must be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. He 
must have been regenerated by the Spirit of God. No 
other one can in spirit either partake of this Supper or 
be really baptized. These ordinances symbolize spirit- 
ual things, and spiritual things must be spiritually dis- 
cerned. Kegeneration is the first and an inexorable pre- 
requisite to this table. Let God's Word here speak on 
this matter. Matthew, Mark and Luke all unite in say- 
ing that ''Jesus gave the Supper to the disciples" — to 
the disciples and not to the world. He gave it to the 
eleven men who were with him on that sad, lone night. 
To these apostles, the nucleus of his church, the Sup- 
per was committed. That it was committed to his dis- 
ciples and not to the world is seen from this record 
in Acts 20:7: ''And upon the first day of the week, 
when the disciples came together to break bread" — 
that is, to observe the Supper. This is the record of 
the early church now fully at work. Then, clearly it 
was committed to Christ's people and intended only for 
them. 

93 



TiEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Tlie two ordinances, baptism and the Supper, sym- 
bolize the entire gospel of the Son of G-od. The Supper 
symbolizes the constant feeding of the soul that has 
been begotten unto a spiritual life by the power of 
God. Bread and wine indicate nourishment. This new 
life must have nourishment. It must be fed. That is 
the reason why we often observe this Supper. It sym- 
bolizes that heavenly nourishment upon which the new 
life is dependent for all its growth and usefulness in the 
service of God. Baptism symbolizes another thing. It 
symbolizes our death and burial to the old life, and our 
resurrection to walk in the new life. This death, burial 
and resurrection take place but once. Hence we are 
baptized but once. Our resurrection to the new life 
is once for all, therefore it is symbolized but once, by 
baptism. But the new life just begun has to be sus- 
tained and nourished. Therefore, often do God's peo- 
ple come to this table, and only his redeemed people 
can come. A lost man is a dead man. The dead can 
not eat. You do not feed corpses. You feed only the 
living. So this Supper, by its very constitution and 
character, is intended only for those washed in Christ's 
precious blood. 

Restricted to the Baptized. 

But again, not only was it restricted to Christ's disci- 
ples, but these same disciples must previously have been 
baptized. I beg you to pause and think on this a mo- 

94 



T(EN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ment. Do the Scriptures teach that baptism is prereq- 
uisite to this Supper? Plainly and fully they do so 
teach. In this world, baptism always goes before the 
Supper. But, again, there is practically no disagree- 
ment among Christian people on this point. All the 
great bodies of Christian people are agreed that this 
Supper is to be observed only by the baptized, and that 
no one has the scriptural right to come who has not been 
baptized. A very few small bodies, together with a few 
individuals, dissent from this view, but there is but 
one mind about it among the several large bodies of 
Christians throughout the world. They are thoroughly 
and earnestly agreed that only baptized people ought to 
come to the Lord's table. This proposition is true his- 
torically, denominationally, and scripturally. 

What, then, is the isfue between our Baptist people 
and others concerning this ordinance ? The answer may 
be stated in one brief sentence : The issue mainly gath- 
ers about the ordinance of baptism. We believe that 
only baptized people — and but one thing to us means 
scriptural baptism — may scripturally come to this table. 
Here, then, is the chief issue between us and other 
people. I have said that baptism always comes before 
the Supper. This is historically true. The great histo- 
rians who have written about it confirm it. Let me 
quote three or four brief sentences from them. Mo- 
sheim, speaking of Christians in the first century, says : 

95 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL D € T E I N E S. 

"They were such as had been solemnly admitted into 
the church by baptism." Justin Martyn wrote, 150 A. 
D. : "It is not lawful for any to partake of the Lord's 
Supper, but such as believe the things that are taught 
by us to be true, and have been baptized." Gibbon, in 
his "Decline and Fall of the Koman Empire," says: 
"With the early Christians the Lord's Supper followed 
baptism. ' ' Neander, the leading church historian, says : 
"No man could be present at the communion who was 
not a member of the church and incorporated into it by 
baptism. ' ' 

Not only is it true historically that baptism goes be- 
fore the Supper, but it is true denominationally. Bap- 
tists, then, are not alone who propose "close" or "re- 
stricted communion," as it is commonly called. Every 
great denomination of Christians throughout the world 
does identically the same thing. There is not a scin- 
tilla of difference between Baptists and others on this 
point. They, with us, demand that before one comes 
to the table, he must have previously been baptized. 
The issue then is not about "close communion" — it is 
close baptism. With Baptists, immersion alone is bap- 
tism, and the immersion of one who has already been 
saved. With them, nothing else can be scriptural bap- 
tism. 

Here opens before us a tremendous field for thought. 
Our people are unyielding and immovable in their con- 

96 



T,EN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

tention that a person to be scripturally baptized must 
first have believed on Christ and been saved by him, and 
then immersed. They believe that nobody ean be scrip- 
turally baptized, even though his body be immersed, if 
he has not already been saved by Christ. Therefore 
they are compelled to deny the scripturalness of sprink- 
ling or pouring for baptism. To them neither has even 
the semblance of scriptural baptism. And furthermore, 
they would also reject as fundamentally unscriptural 
the immersion of infants, if that were even proposed in 
the place of sprinkling or pouring, because the Scrip- 
tures demand personality, voluntariness, and spiritual- 
ity in all the duties of Christianity. Baptism and the 
Supper are for the saved alone, and only the saved 
can scripturally observe either ordinance. 
Sincerity Not Sufficient. 
But some good man who thiaks differently from what 
I have said, says : ' ' My baptism is not immersion, but I 
am sincere in it, that it is scriptural baptism." I will 
not question his sincerity, but shall I pass upon his sin- 
cerity or upon my own? I do not believe that he has 
been scripturally baptized, in any conceivable sense. I 
must be governed, therefore, by my own convictions 
of the teachings of God's Word, and not by his. It is 
not enough to say because one is sincere that therefore 
he is right. If that were true, then Paul was as right 
before his conversion as afterwards, because he was sia- 
cere in his conviction that, in his bitter persecution of 

97 



T,EN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

the church, he was serving G-od. If it were true, the 
heathen in his mad idolatry is safe, because he is sin- 
cere. Do you not see that this standard alone might 
pervert all truth? No, this whole matter with us is a 
question of the interpretation of the "Word of God. 
Frankly, candidly and lovingly we differ from our 
brethren as to ''what saith the Scriptures" concerning 
these two ordinances. 

Though we are compelled thus to differ from them, 
irreconcilably, in our interpretation of God's "Word, 
yet we differ in tenderest Christian love. God pity 
Christian men who otherwise differ and who magnify 
their differences by unchristian wranglings and spirit! 
He has shown unto us a more excellent way. Differ- 
ing, as we thus do fundamentally, we would not only be 
inconsistent, but we would also be dishonorable in the 
sight of God and men to ask those to come to this ta- 
ble whom we solemnly believe have never been bap- 
tized. Having said these earnest, candid words, let me 
hasten to add that it gives me joy unutterable to note 
that our brethren who radically differ from us are 
coming to understand better our position on this ques- 
tion and to appreciate and approve our consistency. 

The Other Denominations. 

Let me read you some brief quotations, that you 
may see how they are coming to appreciate the posi- 

98 



TJ]N FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

tion of our Baptist people. I quote these words from 
the American Presbyterian, as printed some years ago: 

''Open communion is an absurdity, when it means 
communion with the unbaptized. I would not for a mo- 
ment consider a proposal to admit an unbaptized per- 
son to the communion, and can I ask a Baptist so to 
stultify himself and ignore his own doctrine as to wish 
me to commune with him while he believes I am unbap- 
tized? I want no sham union and no sham unity, and if 
I held the Baptist notion about immersion, I would no 
more receive a Presbyterian to the communion than I 
would receive a Quaker. Let us have unity, indeed, but 
not at the expense of principle; and let us not ask the 
Baptist to ignore or be inconsistent with his own doc- 
trine. Let us not either make an outcry at his * close 
communion,' which is but faithfulness, until we are pre- 
pared to be open communionists ourselves, from which 
stupidity may we be forever preserved.'* 

Now, that is candid and noble and Christian. He un- 
derstands the situation just as it is. 

That matchless orator, Henry Ward Beecher, used 
these words in the Christian Union a few years ago: 
''A Pedo-Baptist who believes that baptism is a prereq^ 
uisite to communion has no right to censure the Bap- 
tist churches for close communion. On this question 
there is a great deal of pulling out of motes by people 
whose own vision is not clear." 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

The late Dr. Jolm Hall, of New York, one of the 
leading Presbyterians of the world, said these candid 
words : 

''If I believed with the Baptists, that none are bap- 
tized but those who are immersed on profession of faith, 
then I should, with them, refuse to commune with any 
others." 

Faithful words are these from the great preacher who 
went home only a few years ago. 

Dr. Hibbard, the great Methodist leader, thus speaks : 

''It is but just to remark that, in one principle, the 
Baptist and Pedo-Baptist churches agree. They both 
agree in rejecting from communion at the table of the 
Lord and in denying the rights of church fellowship to 
all who have not been baptized. Valid baptism they 
consider as essential to constitute visible church mem- 
bership. This also we (the Methodists) hold. The only 
question then, that here divides us is, What is essential 
to valid baptism?" 

The distinguished Episcopalian, Dr. Wall, says: 

"No church ever gave the communion to persons be- 
fore they were baptized. Among all the absurdities that 
were ever held, none ever maintained that any person 
should partake of the communion before they were bap- 
tized." 

These are just a few of many similar expressions that 
are being spoken by our brethren who differ from us. 

100 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

These expressions are truthful and noble and Christian, 
and they state the case just as it is. 

The One Word of Authority. 

But, waiving all the historical and denominational 
testimony to the proposition that baptism is a prerequi- 
site to the Supper, let us see specially to the question: 
''What saith the Scriptures?" Does this word teach 
that men ought to be baptized before they come to the 
table? Here are its answers: 

''When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees 
had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples 
than John (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his 
disciples." There is Christ's law: (1) Making disci- 
ples; (2) baptizing them. 

Again, when the successor to Judas was to be chosen, 
the demand was that the one ordained to be a witness, 
with the other apostles, of Christ's resurrection, must be 
'*from the baptism of John." 

When Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matt. 
28:19-20), this was the order of its development: (1) 
Make disciples; (2) baptize these disciples; and (3) 
properly teach them. Is it thinkable to you that Jesus 
would have these apostles and early Christians demand 
of others what he did not demand of them? And now, 
later, we find the early church at Jerusalem is literally 
carrying out this commission. Here is the record: 

101 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

' * Then they that gladly received his word were baptized ; 
and the same day were added unto them about three 
thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the 
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread (i. e., the Supper), and in prayers." (Acts 
2:41-42.) How simple this record: Men are convicted 
of sin under Peter's preaching. He points them to Je- 
sus, who saves them. They are then baptized. Next, 
they are steadfast in the aj)ostles' doctrine and in fellow- 
ship. All these things occur before the Supper. Per- 
fectly clear, then, is God's Word, as taught by both Je- 
sus and the apostles, that the first duty of the believer 
is baptism and that baptism comes before the Supper. 

Church Membership a Prerequisite. 

But, still further: Not only did Jesus give this Sup- 
per to his disciples, who had been previously baptized, 
but he gave it to the baptized disciples in their organ- 
ized capacity; that is to say, he gave this Supper to his 
church. Then, a third prerequisite to this table is or- 
derly church membership. 

Note the order : Regeneration, baptism, church mem- 
bership. To his churches, then, Jesus committed this 
ordinance. He did not commit it to preachers, as such, 
nor to individuals, as such, but to his churches, in their 
church capacity. I put this question : Who is to judge 
of the qualifications of people who come to this table? 

102 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

There can be but two answers. One is that it is an 
individual matter, and that the individual must wholly 
pass upon it. The other view is that this ordinance 
was committed to the churches, to be preserved by them 
in all its pristine purity and meaning. Shall the indi- 
vidual desiring to come to this table be the sole judge 
of his qualifications, or shall the church be the judge? 

If you say the individual shall be the sole judge, 
then you cannot keep any man away from the Lord's 
table. Let me show you the utter inconsistency of it. 
In your church is a man guilty of insubordination to 
church authority, or some gross immorality, or some se- 
rious heresy. Fidelity to God's Word compels you to 
withdraw from him, and you obey that Word. The sol- 
emn act of withdrawal is taken by the church, in obe- 
dience to God's command, and for the preservation of 
the church. Next Sunday the excluded man comes 
again into the worship of God's people. And now they 
come to observe the Lord's Supper. Every man pres- 
ent is told to be Ms own judge, and come to the table 
if he so chooses. There sits the excluded man, whose 
immorality is odious to the community, and whose here- 
sy seeks to subvert the very fundamentals of the gospel, 
and yet he is included in the invitation to the Lord 's ta- 
ble. Is it consistent? Is it righteous? Can it be hon- 
oring to God? How dare his people do it? 



103 



T^N FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Why Not the Immersed? 
Just here is answered another question: Why do 
not Baptists invite the immersed of other denomina- 
tions to the Lord's table? The answer is near at hand: 
Immersion only, as before said, does not constitute scrip- 
tural baptism. One must be immersed because he is al- 
ready saved, and not in any sense to secure salvation. 
Just here we are compelled to differ, fundamentally, 
from some who agree with us as to the proper act of 
baptism. One of the fundamental designs of baptism is 
to symbolize the great fact of the believer's death to 
sin and his resurrection to a spiritual life that has al- 
ready taken place. And still again, baptism must be 
administered by a proper administrator. This ordi- 
nance, as well as the Supper, has been committed to the 
church. Then the church alone can legally administer 
it. But suppose a body of Christian people inveigh 
against immersion as the scriptural act of baptism, and 
give their influence in writing against it, speaking 
against it, and teaching against it; and if, to secure a 
member, or for any other cause, immersion is adminis- 
tered by them, against their consciences and against 
what they conceive to be the teaching of God's Word; 
and if, as is unwaveringly held by Baptists, immersion 
alone is the proper act of baptism; then can such bap- 
tism be orderly, consistent, and scriptural? Our con- 
victions of God's Word compel us to answer in the neg- 
ative. 

104 



T^N FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Still further answering the question: The Bible not 
only plainly specifies certain prerequisites to the Supper, 
but it also just as plainly specifies certain disqualifica- 
tions. Now, since the Supper is an ordinance of the 
church, it must inevitably follow that whatever would 
debar a man from the church must also debar him from 
the Lord's table in that church. It is logically incon- 
ceivable that one should be deprived of membership in 
the church and yet not also be deprived of coming to 
the Lord's table in that church, since the first privilege 
is the source and foundation for the second. 

Among the causes mentioned in the Scriptures, for 
which a church should withdraw from members, are 
these: Insubordination to church authority, immoral 
conduct, a schismatical spirit, heresy, and disobedi- 
ence to the commands of Christ. Do we see schism, 
heresy, and disobedience to the commands of Christ in 
the teachings of other Christian people, who believe and 
teach so differently from us ? Our separate existence is 
a sufficient answer. Then the question is answered, by 
the two points of valid baptism and scriptural doctrine, 
as to why Baptists do not invite the immersed of other 
denominations to the Lord's table. 

The Church as Custodian. 

That the local church is the custodian of this ordi- 
nance, and must judge of the qualifications of those 
desiring to partake of it, is shown by the fact that the 

105 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

command to observe it was given, not to individuals, 
but to a company. On the nigbt of its institution, 
Jesus said to the eleven, themselves bis incipient 
cburcb: "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father 
has appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at 
my table, in my kingdom." (Luke 22:29-30.) Mani- 
festly, this table is inside and not outside the church. 
The church alone can, therefore, be charged with the re- 
sponsibility for its government. Writing to the church 
at Corinth, Paul uses this language: "But I say, that 
the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they so sacrifice 
to devils, and not to God; and I would not that ye 
should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink 
the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils; ye cannot 
be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of 
devils." (1 Cor. 10:21-22.) What is Paul talking 
about? He is talking about the influence that idolatry 
is insidiously wielding upon the church at Corinth. He 
finds there, for example, this conditon, a husband and a 
wife — the one an idolater, the other a Christian. The 
idolater proposes to the Christian: ''Come with me to 
my table, then I will go with you to yours." This, Paul 
declared to be fundamentally wrong. Not for the sake 
of husband or wife, or mother or child, could the Chris- 
tian sit, now at one table and then at another. The 
place and purpose of the two tables imperatively for- 
bade such inconsistency and compromise. 

106 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Writing further to the same church, earnestly does 
Paul bring out the thought that the observance of this 
ordinance is not an individual act, but the joint act of 
the church. ^'When ye come together in the church, 
.... when ye come together therefore into one place, 
.... when ye come together to eat (i. e., to observe the 
Supper), tarry one for another." (1 Cor. 11 : 18-20-33.) 
Never individually, but only in her collective capacity, 
can the church observe this Supper. Therefore, I al- 
ways instantly decline to carry these emblems out to the 
sick and the dying. Awful is the perversion of this ordi- 
nance, where men individually take these emblems here 
and there, to be individually ministered to the aged and 
sick and dying. 

Writing elsewhere to the same church, Paul says: 
**For we, being many, are one bread, and one body." 
(1 Cor. 10:17.) As it takes the separate States of the 
union to make the United States, so the members of a 
church, not individually, but ** being many are one 
bread, and one body," must act collectively in order 
scripturally to observe this ordinance. We have seen 
at length that the answer to our second question is, 
that a local church is the only body known to the 
Scriptures which has any competency or jurisdiction in 
the government of her two ordinances. 

The Meaning of the Supper. 

Our third question is, What is the meaning of this 
Supper? What is our design in our observance of it? 

107 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

This is a question of g^eat moment. Some of the most 
^ievous evils that have ever afflicted the world have 
grown out of the perversion of the design of this Sup- 
per. Three distinct views are held with regard to its 
nature. There is the view of the Romanist, called tran- 
substantiation, which view is that this bread and wine 
are literally changed, by the consecration of the priest, 
into the very body and blood of Christ; and that, by 
thus eating Christ's body and drinking his blood God's 
saving grace is received by the communicant. The view 
of the Lutheran, and, perhaps, some others, called con- 
substantiation, is, that though the bread and wine are 
not changed, yet along with them is present the real 
body and blood of Christ, so that both are eaten at the 
same time by the communicant. So palpably do these 
two theories contradict the plain nature and purpose of 
this ordinance, and the whole gospel, that I do not need 
to stop to refute them. 

Let this simple statement of God's Word show us this 
Supper's meaning: ''This do, in remembrance of me." 
Here is its meaning in one brief sentence: "This do 
in remembrance of me." But some one asks: "Do 
we not come to this table to commune with one anoth- 
er?" Such sentiment is widespread and has done in- 
calculable harm. Only once is it called a "communion" 
in the Scriptures, and that by Paul, where he says: 
"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the com- 

108 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

munion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we 
break, is it not the conununion of the body of Christ?" 
(1 Cor. 10: 16.) A better translation of this word ''com- 
munion" would be "participation," and it does not 
mean A, B and C participating with each other, but par- 
ticipating with the "body and blood of Christ." 

Jesus does not say, "Do this in remembrance of cer- 
tain loved ones, or to show fellowship for them," but 
"Do this in remembrance of me." It is the only thing 
he ever asked his people to do whereby they might re- 
member him. Oh, shall we deny him this simple re- 
quest? The question of "showing Christian fellowship 
for others ' ' is not even to be thought of when we gather 
at this table of our Lord. Yea, more : For any one to 
come here with such motive is a grave sin in the 
sight of God. "Do this in remembrance of me." 

As to Christian Fellowship. 

It is not a question of Christian fellowship. There 
are other times and places for the tender and beautiful 
manifestation of Christian fellowship, but this is not 
the time nor place to be thinking of that. "Do this in 
remembrance of me." I believe in the heartfelt, .joyous 
fellowship of all God 's children. I know nothing of my 
poor heart, if it does not thrill with tenderest Christian 
fellowship for every one in whom I see the image of my 
Redeemer. Though I believe that great multitudes of 

109 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

my Father's cliildren have never seripturally been bap- 
tized, yet I love and esteem them as earnest, noble Chris- 
tians. I love them with an unspeakable love, and no 
man shall go ahead of me in cherishing tenderest Chris- 
tian fellowship for them. But, far be from me all such 
thoughts when I gather at this table to remember my 
Lord. 

There is this other Scripture that should always be 
read in this connection: ''Whosoever shall eat this 
bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, 
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But 
let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that 
bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and 
drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation (i. 
e., condemnation) to himself, not discerning the Lord's 
body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among 
you, and many sleep." (1 Cor. 11 : 27-30.) What Chris- 
tian has not felt unspeakable trembling as he read that 
awful sentence? "He that eateth and drinketh un- 
worthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (i. e., con- 
demnation) to himself." What does it mean? The an- 
swer is found in the latter clause of the same verse: 
"Not discerning the Lord's body." 

There is but one motive and thought to concern us as 
we come to this table. To come to it with any other 
than to "discern the Lord's body" is to harm the soul 
and to sin against Christ. It is a question touching your 

110 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

motive in coming. It is not a question of your sense of 
unworthiness. Certainly you are unworthy, and you 
are also unworfhy of all the countless blessings of sal- 
vation. But, in coming to this table, for what do you 
come? It is to remember Jesus. It is to discern his 
body. That is the one motive. All this talk about gath- 
ering around this table to show fellowship for mother, 
wife, child, neighbor, is not only senseless twaddle, but 
it is a sin against God and men. Oh, my Savior, shall 
our thought in coming to thy table be about dear moth- 
er, or wife, or child, and shall these earthly forms dis- 
place the broken and bleeding form of Jesus, who gave 
himself unto death for us? God forbid! No wonder 
it is said of those who thus come: ''For this cause 
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." 
Oh, my brethren, see to it, do see to it, that in coming to 
this table but one thing is to engage the powers of your 
minds and hearts, and that is that you "discern the 
Lord's body." And know, once for all, that any other 
coming is mockery against the meaning of this ordi- 
nance and against him who gave it. 

There is still another Scripture that we should briefly 
examine: ''But let a man examine himself, and so let 
him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." (1 Cor. 
11:28.) This is often quoted by those who insist upon 
*' individuality" and "liberality" in the observance of 
this ordinance. Let us examine the verse a moment. 

Ill 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

To whom were the words addressed? They were ad- 
dressed to a church, the church at Corinth. This same 
church, as we have before learned, was instructed con- 
cerning this Supper, to ''Come together in the church 
.... to come together into one place .... and to tar- 
ry one for another, when they thus came together to 
observe the supper." (1 Cor. 11: 18-20-33.) All thought 
of individualism in the observance of the Supper is thus 
destroyed. 

Then, when this church, collectively, is ready to ob- 
serve the Supper, the question of self-examination is 
pressed upon every individual who proposes to partic- 
ipate in its observance. The individual has his place 
there with his brethren. The church collectively, and 
not individually, is about this table. They are going 
to observe the Supper. The officials are ready to give 
to each the emblems. Now, what is the supreme ob- 
ject of this self-examination? The Scriptures connected 
with the verse plainly tell us — it is a question of mo- 
tive. The self-examination is to be had with this one 
end in view — ^not to so eat and drink as to bring con- 
demnation upon himself, but simply and only so as to 
''discern the Lord's body." Oh, my brethren, I charge 
you, see to it that yours is the one motive whenever you 
observe this beautiful ordinance. 

The Baptist Position. 
I have gone over this subject hurriedly, but item by 
item, presenting the Scriptures touching this ordinance* 

112 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

May I say it modestly, my Baptist people keep tMs ordi- 
nance as is demanded by the Holy Word. They believe 
that God's Word does plainly teach that men must be 
born again, and then be scripturally baptized, and then 
maintain an orderly church membership, in order to be 
scripturally entitled to observe this ordinance. For 
these prerequisites my Baptist people unwaveringly 
stand. They are the only people who have thus stood 
for this meaningful ordinance. Their fidelity has cost 
them reproach, and many have been the charges of 
"narrowness," ''discourtesy," and ''illiberality" that 
have been heaped upon them. But did it ever occur to 
some good Christian, who forgot himself so far as thus 
hastily to criticise his Baptist brethren, that the sub- 
limest exhibition of fidelity and unselfishness in the his- 
tory of Christianity is the Baptist position on the Lord's 
Supper? Dear brother, if it were for human applause, 
is it not reasonable that our course would be different? 
Against all the world my Baptist people thus have stood 
— and for what? They could have baptized many who 
are today in Pedo-baptist churches, if they had not un- 
yieldingly contended for the scriptural restrictions of 
this Supper. Our people feel, they believe with all their 
hearts, that for them to change their course one iota in 
this matter would be palpable disobedience to their Mas- 
ter's word 

113 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

I repeat, this ordinance has received awful treat- 
ment, but not by Baptist hands. It has been individ- 
ually taken out of the church into the streets, to the 
beds of the sick and dying, but not by Baptist hands. 
Some withhold part of it altogether, but not my people. 
Some withhold it even from some whom they say they 
have baptized, but not my people. Some — from their 
talk I fear there are many — observe this ordinance for 
expressing their fellowship one for another, but never 
so by my Baptist people. 



114 



CHAPTER Vm. 

THE INDEPENDENCE AND IN- 

TERDEPENDENCE OF THE 

BAPTIST CHURCHES. 



By L. R. Scarborough, D.D. 
A Baptist clmrch is a unique institution. When 
Christ organized the first one, he had no earthly mod- 
el. He brought the plan from heaven. On the human 
side it is a pure democracy. Its sovereignty is within 
itself. On the divine side it is a pure theocracy. Christ 
is its absolute head and governing authority. It has 
no member or official who can have ecclesiastical author- 
ity. It cannot delegate to any one person, or group 
of persons any part of its God-given authority. *'Its 
sovereignty always stays at home." It is free to do as 
it pleases, within certain bounds. It is always con- 
trolled by Christ's will and word. No outside human 
individual, or group of individuals, can bind it or con- 
trol its actions. No conference, convention, association, 
board ; no ecclesiastic of any sort or from any source can 
give one command, make one law or rule binding upon 
the least Baptist church in the world. And yet, it is 
bound absolutely and forever by every word given in 
inspiration by Jesus Christ. Its disloyalty is flagrant, 
treasonable and unpardonable if it swerves one iota 

115 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

from the least of Christ's commands. It has certain 
functions and powers and is sovereign in its sphere and 
field in the exercise of them. No body can question nor 
gainsay its rights in these fields; neither the State in 
its civil or military power, nor other churches in their 
ecclesiastical powers can have any authority over it. It 
is in no sense a legislative body. It cannot make a law 
binding on the conscience or conduct of anybody, nor 
can a group of Baptist churches appoint delegates or 
messengers who can associate themselves into a legisla- 
tive body, and make ecclesiastical laws binding on Bap- 
tists anywhere in the world. Its judicial powers are 
limited. It is competent to judge of the qualifications 
of its members, either to come in or go out. It can judge 
as to the fitness of its officers to hold office, as to place 
and time. It has a certain judicial authority in the 
interpretation of Scriptures governing its ordinances, its 
members and affairs. It cannot bind the consciences of 
any of its members, nor compel obedience in anybody's 
conduct. It can determine the matter of association 
and fellowship in its worship and work, of any mem- 
ber who wilfully violates its demands or rules. It is an 
executive body. It is bound by every holy command 
of God to do absolutely and as far as possible the will 
of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible as it is seen un- 
der the enlightening leadership of the divine Spirit. 
Every Baptist church and every Baptist in all the world 

116 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOQTRINES. 

is under a law wrought in their souls at regeneration 
to do Christ's will. Neither has any right to set aside 
nor neglect any command he makes. So here is a free 
democracy under a pure theocracy. 

A Baptist church as such has no word to say to civil 
authorities, nor can civil authority say any word gov- 
erning a Baptist church in the exercise of its functions 
under will of Jesus Christ. No officer from State or na- 
tional or military governments can decide in the least 
sense what a Baptist church must do or say when it 
acts in any direction carrying out the revealed will of 
Jesus Christ. Not even the President of the United 
States, the Commander-in-Chief of all the armies and 
navies, can tell a Baptist church what to do in preach- 
ing the gospel or administering the ordinances or teach- 
ing the Word of God. Nor can a Baptist church use any 
ecclesiastical powers over any civil authority in matters 
of State or religion. This is the sort of a church Jesus 
set forth in his day and wrote about in the New Testa- 
ment. 

Their Interdependence. 

There is no such thing as *'the Baptist church" mean- 
ing an ecclesiastical unit composed of a group of Bap- 
itst churches. You can rightly say *'the Methodist 
church'* or the *' Roman Catholic church" in such a 
sense, but not **the Baptist church." You can cor- 
rectly say "the Baptist denomination," when you speak 

117 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

of the Baptists, composed of all the churches of a sec- 
tion. I never like to hear a Baptist speak of ''the 
church," unless he means some local Baptist church. 

Each Baptist church in all of its ecclesiastical author- 
ity and powers is wholly and entirely independent of 
every other Baptist church, yet in all the work of preach- 
ing the gospel to a lost world it is very dependent upon 
all other Baptist churches and bears to them a deep and 
abiding inter-relationship, which it must regard if it 
will do its best work for Christ. The doctrine of co- 
operation is as binding on a Baptist church as the doc- 
trine of missions or baptism. Every Baptist church is 
as much obligated to co-operate with other Baptist 
churches in carrying out Christ's commission in the 
worl^ as is each member in each church bound to co-op- 
erate with other members in doing the work laid out 
for his local church. Disloyalty to Christ would have 
been no greater if Peter had said to James, both mem- 
bers of the church at Jerusalem, *'I will not co-oper- 
ate with you and the other members of the church in 
preaching the gospel here in Jerusalem," than if the 
First Baptist church in Atlanta would say to the First 
church in Macon, "we will not co-operate with you in 
carrying the gospel to Georgia and to the world." These 
churches are bound by a holy law of relationships and 
life to join together in planning for and working out 
such plans in giving the gospel to the world. 

118 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Certain Meaningful Facts About This Interdependence. 

1. If Baptist churches do not co-operate with each 
other in gospel projects they will never build a great 
forceful, victorious denomination and hence will lose 
their place in constructing a glorious kingdom for Je- 
sus Christ. They forfeit their claim to his power be- 
cause they refuse their obedience to him in the most 
vital matters. 

2. If they do not co-operate in the spirit of a great 
brotherhood they will never build mighty institutions 
fostering trained leadership, such as colleges, seminaries, 
hospitals, orphanages, religious papers, mission move- 
ments and agencies. Our very life as a people, our fond- 
est hopes as a religious world-power, are bound up in 
our co-operant spirit and attitude. 

3. The non-co-operating church will itself fail in its 
own local field. The self -centered church, which fosters 
disfellowship and non-co-op erancy in the larger kingdom 
work, will eventually die. The laws of life and growth 
are against it. Such a center breeds death-germs. If 
we are unwilling to do Christ's will in his larger and 
kingdom work he will not help us to do our work in our 
smaller field. So churches must co-operate with each 
other in order to live. Church history, ancient and 
modem, tells everywhere the same story, verifying the 
truth of this statement. 

119 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

4. There is a tremendous and constantly binding ob- 
ligation for Baptist churclies to co-operate in keeping 
pure the doctrines of the Word of God, as well as in 
carrying the gospel around the world. Our powers to 
persevere in gospel proclamation are bound up with the 
purity and loyalty of our doctrines. A co-operant mis- 
sionary and educational world-movement which emas- 
culates the doctrines of God's Word will fail. There 
needs to be a toning up of Baptist conscience along this 
line. There is a co-operancy and interdependence on 
doctrine as well as on practice aud works. A pure 
spiritual democracy in local church independence and 
life characterized by a Christly spirit of world-wide co- 
operancy in all the kingdom movements is what should 
be sought for in all your Baptist churches throughout 
the world. May it so be. 



120 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE FINAL PERSEVERANCE OF 
THE SAINTS. 



By E. Y. Midlins, D.D., LL.D. 

The subject of the final perseverance of the saints is 
one which appeals directly to the hearts of Christian 
people. It is sometimes stated in alternative form as 
the preservation of the saints. In the latter the sov- 
ereignty of God and his providential care are especially 
emphasized. As a matter of fact, however, both forms 
of statement are necessary to bring out all the truth. 
God preserves the saints, and the saints persevere in 
the divine life. Exclusive emphasis upon the divine 
preservation would tend to slur over and minimize the 
co-operation of the saints, while exclusive emphasis up- 
on their perseverance would tend inevitably to slight 
the divine sovereignty and God's agency in man's sal- 
vation. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints 
may be expressed in a series of statements, such as the 
following : 

1. First, God has an eternal purpose toward indi- 
viduals. The purpose of God toward mankind is not 
merely a purpose in general toward the race. There is 
unquestionably such a purpose, but God has always 
chosen individuals to carry out his larger purpose to- 

121 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

ward mankind. The account of the call of Abraham in 
Genesis makes this abundantly clear; so also does the 
call of the apostle Paul. It is a wrong conception of 
God's purpose toward the world to imagine that it is 
a sort of blanket desire for the salvation of men. It is 
more than this. It is a purpose which becomes effectu- 
al in the calling and regeneration of individuals. 

2. In the second place, the purpose of God in choos- 
ing individuals to salvation will inevitably be carried 
out. There is no uncertainty in any of the plans of God. 
He never changes from a definite purpose which he 
forms. Sometimes he changes his method. The various 
dispensations in his dealings with men illustrate this; 
but, as the apostle remarks in Phil. 1:6: He who began 
a good work in men will carry it out unto the day of 
Jesus Christ. God is an unchangeable being, but this 
does not mean that there are no variations in his meth- 
ods. It is therefore certain that when God calls, and 
regenerates, and justifies, and saves a man, he will not 
fall away and perish. There is abundant Scripture in 
proof of this position. In the 10th chapter of John, 
28th and 29th verses, Jesus emphasizes the fact that 
those who come to him will never perish. And in Ro- 
mans 8:30, predestination, which took place before the 
foundation of the world, and glorification, which is the 
final salvation of men, are coupled together in such a 
way that it is impossible to believe that any one who is 

122 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES^ 

saved by the power of God can ultimately fall away and 
be lost. 

3. In the third place, the carrying out of God's eter- 
nal purpose in the salvation of individuals involves the 
use of means in order to accomplish the divine end. It 
is a great mistake to imagine that God's grace oper- 
ates apart from the use of human agencies and means 
employed for bringing about the spiritual result. It is 
altogether possible to hold a one-sided view on this sub- 
ject which will lead to hardshellism. It is an easy-go- 
ing and indeed lazy attitude toward the grace of God 
to assume that it will work as if by magic without 
any occasion for human agency or human effort. But 
God's grace in the salvation of men becomes effectual 
through these means and these agencies. 

4. In the fourth place, in the carrying out of his 
purpose through these means, the free agency of man is 
fully recognized. At this point may be noted one of 
the most common mistakes in dealing with this subject. 
Men think of the grace of God as if it were a physical 
force, acting upon the human will by sheer power; but 
the Scriptures never represent it in this way. The 
grace of God is not dynamite, and the human will is not 
like a rock to be blasted from its place by a physical 
explosion. God works in moral and spiritual ways to 
inffuence and change the will. His Holy Spirit constant- 
ly acts with a view to accomplishing this result, but the 

123 ' 



TEN FUNI>AMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Spirit of God does not crush man's will, nor does he 
override that will. He persuades it and leads it and 
imparts to it moral and spiritual power to choose aright. 
The result is that man works out what God works in 
the soul. In Phil. 2 : 12-13, we read the injunction that 
we are to work out our own salvation with fear and 
trembling, because it is God that worketh in us both 
to will and to do for his good pleasure. Here we have 
clearly stated the relation between the grace of God 
as an agency acting upon man and human freedom. If 
the doctrine of man's free agency is not safeguarded, we 
are in danger of a subtle and hurtful pantheism, which 
will destroy human effort and convert man into a mere 
animal or vegetable. "We may regard him as being on 
a level below that of free beings. This is disastrous. 
It is because man is free, and it is because God re- 
spects his freedom, that saving grace flows out to the 
free will of man through other men and other women, 
in order that that grace may become effectual in pro- 
ducing the suitable response of that will. 

5. A fifth and final statement is that the eternal 
purpose of God in thus saving individuals can only be 
fully understood when we think of salvation in its 
larger New Testament meaning. The salvation which 
the Scriptures teach has several phases. First of all, 
it includes justification and regeneration and all the 
blessings which accompany conversion. This is finished 

124 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

salvation, which rests upon the atoning work of Christ, 
and which is wrought in us through the action of the 
Holy Spirit. But there is also a final salvation which 
includes all the fullness of moral and spiritual perfec- 
tion, which Peter refers to when he mentions the sal- 
vation for which we are kept, which shall be revealed 
''at the last time." Now, between this initial and this 
final salvation there is the process by which the spirit- 
ual life is developed. The salvation, then, which God 
purposes in choosing individuals, is a salvation which 
includes all these phases. We cannot understand that 
salvation unless we take into account all three of them. 
Before closing this article, it may be well to notice 
one objection some have urged, that it is an immoral 
doctrine to teach men that they will certainly be saved 
when once they have believed in Christ. It is taken for 
granted by the objector that if men are told that they 
will certainly be saved, they will proceed to take ad- 
vantage of the grace of God and live whatever life they 
may be disposed to live, indulging their sins and ap- 
petites and living in a manner unworthy of Christ and 
his gospel. But the objector overlooks a most vital fact, 
viz., that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints 
can only be understood fully in the light of the other 
truth that the regenerate man has been awakened in 
his whole spiritual nature. His will has been enlist- 
ed in the service of Christ. His desires have been 

125 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

changed. The whole bent and set of his being has been 
turned in a new direction, and it is absurd to assume 
that a man whose nature has been thus radically re- 
newed will be disposed to indulge the flesh because the 
grace that renewed him is known by him to be a grace 
which will preserve him to the end. The doctrine prop- 
erly understood stirs the depths of gratitude in the hu- 
man soul, and men are led by it into zealous devotion 
to the kingdom of Christ and his service. 



126 



CHAPTER X. 

A FUTURE JUDGMENT. 



By J. F. Love, D.D. 

Apart from the dogmatic teaching of the Bible, fu- 
ture things are not all matters of speculation. The 
invisible things of him are clearly seen, being under- 
stood by the things that are now known and accepted. 
"We have in present knowledge and experience the 
premise of conclusions which complete them and cor- 
roborate Scripture. The acceptance of certain primary 
and fundamental facts of the moral world imposes 
the logical necessity of a future in which certain things 
obtain. There must be universal moral harmony. The 
moral facts of this world anticipate the moral char- 
acter of the world to come. The existence of certain 
facts of great moral significance ensures the existence 
and reality of corresponding facts. That which lies be- 
yond the frontiers of our present knowledge and ex- 
perience is presaged by primary elements of truth now 
commonly accepted. Future judgment is the corollary 
of moral facts and religious doctrines which belong to 
the experience and creed of the average man. These 
primary truths lie at the foundation of the moral or- 
der and of rational views of the universe. 

What then are these primary truths which furnish a 
clue to the future and certify judgment to come? 

127 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

1. The existence of God. 

2. The immortality of the soul. 

3. The persistence of personality after death. 

4. The universality of the moral order. 

Substantial Verities. 

Are the above items of popular belief substantial 
verities ? 

1. Is there, first of all, a Supreme Being, a ration- 
al, moral Creator and Ruler? Are the evidences for 
the existence of God convincing? Are there any in- 
disputable evidences of iQtelligence at work in nature 
and in the world above the intelligence of human crea- 
tures? Is there any rational theory for creation and 
order in nature apart from the persuasion that there 
is a God? 

2. Is man immortal, a being with two hemispheres of 
existence — one on this side of death and the grave, the 
other in the boundless thereafter? Are there any in- 
eradicable convictions in the human soul that it is a 
creature of two worlds? Are there probabilities that 
the marvelous human spirit and intelligence do not in 
the flesh fulfill the high ends of their creation, prob- 
abilities which no doubt or objection has ever been able 
to dispose of or can dispose of? Are there sure and 
unquenchable foretokens of endless life beyond the 
weariness of this? 



128 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

3. Does man's personality, his character and char- 
acteristics survive and persist in that other hemis- 
phere of his existence? Will he constitute a personal 
unit in the society of the life beyond such as he con- 
stitutes here? Will he in that life be clothed with 
intelligence and memory, and will his personal traits 
cling to him? 

4. Is life over there lived under the same moral 
laws that obtain here and now universally? Will right 
always be right and wrong wrong? Will men be 
amenable to the law of right and justice in their fut- 
ure endless lives as they are in this temporary and 
transitory one? Does morality exist in this world on- 
ly? Is it thinkable that moral law and order are sus- 
pended for the vast areas of time and space that lie 
beyond the death boundary? 

What, now, is the answer of the majority of men 
to these primary questions? What is the universal 
conviction? What is the testimony of the greatest 
minds? What is the opinion of the foremost of mod- 
ern students? What answer do they give to these ques- 
tions? Is there among the most independent, unbiased, 
and if you will, irreverent scientists and psychologists 
a growing conviction of probability or improbability 
of these great contents of faith? What are these men 
saying of the certainty of these basal facts which so 
tremendously affect rational views of futurity? 

129 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

We do not propose to go into any long citation of 
testimony. We simply raise the question as to what 
this testimony is in order to set the reader to thinking 
upon that testimony as he is familiar with it, and to 
assert for myself most unequivocally that, while cer- 
tain items in this catalogue are denied by some, every 
one of these is affirmed by an overwhelming majority 
of the specified classes. The modern mind is converg- 
ing its thinking more and more upon such religious 
truths as these under discussion, and more and more 
the thought of scholars, scientific and philosophic, are 
drawing into Christian channels. Science has pro- 
duced a deep conviction of the existence of a God of in- 
finite wisdom, psychology acknowledges the reality of 
religous experience and jointly they affirm the inde- 
structibleness of soul and intelligence. All thoughtful 
men know that law and justice exist together, never 
the one apart from the other. Future judgment serves 
the ends of morality in this world and that which is 
to come. 

The testimony has multiplied in quite recent months, 
and the witnesses have grown quite bold in giving it 
unsolicited, and delivering it through unusual chan- 
nels of communication — the secular press, the independ- 
ent and free lance magazine, and often the platform 
and the stage are used for the announcement of con- 
victions arrived at concerning Christian verities. This 

130 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

age was, before the present war, very greatly sentiment- 
alized. Sentiment and the humanities had for some 
discounted all testimony for future judgment and jus-, 
tice. The war has revived the moral sense of justice. 
This is evidently reacting upon religious faith and caus- 
ing men to face the stern truth of Scripture, that a 
day of judgment is coming. Even the partial judg- 
ments which the law of God and the moral order, of 
which he is author and which he administers, are 
meting out to transgressors in this life, should have con- 
vinced all men that God is not so excessively senti- 
mental as not to punish. These pre-judgment penal- 
ties are alarming intimations of the final judgment and 
complete justice. 

It would be easy to fill this page with recent utter- 
ances, not of theologians nor of saintly men and women 
with simple faith in the Scriptures, but of scientists, 
soldiers, Hterateurs and statesmen. Faith in God, im- 
mortality, the survival of personality, and the moral 
government of God, of everlasting and universal right 
and justice, which shall at last be vindicated, have 
had nothing less than a revival since 1914 and the 
outbreak of this diabolical and murderous war. Rose 
water ethics will not be as popular hereafter as they 
have been. Men can now preach on judgment to come 
without being considered antiquated fanatics. 

131 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Yes, there is to be a future judgment. Things and 
conditions of this life come to conclusions in a final 
court of justice which shall sit after the race has 
crossed the frontier of this life and touched the bor- 
der of that vast hemisphere of life where our largest 
interests lie. When this period of probation for the 
race is at an end, the accounts will have to be balanced 
and closed after the long accumulating interest on all 
delinquencies has been figured up. Conditions under 
which the good and bad respectively are to live there- 
after will have to be determined under the rules of a 
continuing moral order. 

Death is not necessarily a door to merited reward 
or of escape from the consequences of transgression. 
Through this door the righteous shall bound forth to 
new freedom, while the harvests from the good seed 
which they have sown are ripening, and at last to en- 
joy the fruition of their hopes in Christ; passing the 
same door the wicked shall be bound over to the day of 
judgment when they shall give account of the deeds 
done in the body. Death does not change character; it 
changed. Through death the righteous shall escape the 
opened there which contain the records of their deeds 
here. The moral order and moral status will be un- 
changed. Through death the righteous will escape the 
handicap of evil association, and the wicked, passing 
the door of opportunity, shall advance their names on 
the docket pending the sitting of the court. 

132 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

Pictures of the Scene. 

The Scriptures are replete with affirmations and de- 
tails of final judgment. There is nothing in all the 
Word of God or the realm of literature so impressive as 
the accounts given in the Scriptures and the pictures 
drawn there of this solemn and solitary event in the 
history of the soul and of God's moral government. In 
the simplest language there is given us, now with one 
view and then with another, a pictorial presentation of 
the judgment scene — vivid, sublime, august and 
majestic. Something of the details of this picture, 
as well as the awful reality of the event, can be got- 
ten from such arrangement of a few brief extracts of 
Scriptures as the following: 

1. Acts 17:31— "He hath APPOINTED A DAY in 
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given as- 
surance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from 
the dead." 

The day has been set for the convening of the court 
of judgment. No man knows the hour when the crier 
shall summon the scattered dead to face the Judge, but 
every day we live brings us nearer to that hour. Our 
faces are set toward the judgment seat. All inter- 
working of Providence, the moral law and human ac- 
tors are preparatory and progressive for that day. 

133 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTBINES. 

2. Matt. 25:31-46— "When the Son of man shall 
come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; And be- 
fore him shall be GATHERED ALL NATIONS; and 
he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats." 

The nations, all nations, those who know God and 
those who have rejected God, those whom we have 
served in the gospel of Christ, and those whom we have 
neglected, shall be there. These will be separated one 
from another as the sheep and the goats are put in dif- 
ferent pounds. Ah, America will be there with her load 
of responsibility, and Africa, and China ; Germany will 
be there to face the books from which the record of 
her murderous history shall be read out. 

3. Rom. 2: 16— "Li the day when God shall JUDGE 
THE SECRETS OF MEN by Jesus Christ according 
to my gospel." 

Courthouses drag many skeletons from the closets. 
Penalty does not always get itself attached to the 
guilty in this life, but ''God will judge the secrets of 
men." "For we must all be made manifest before the 
judgment seat of Christ." II Cor. 5 : 10. In that final 
judgment hour there will be no false convictions and 
no escapes. "Some men's sins are evident, going be- 
fore unto judgment; and some men also they follow 
after. In like manner, also, there are good works that 

134 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

are evident ; and such as are otherwise cannot be hid. ' ' 
1 Tim. 5:24-25. 

4. Rom. 2:16 — ''In the day when God shall judge 
the secrets of men BY JESUS CHRIST." 

Judgment "by Jesus Christ" informs us concern- 
ing the high standard by which decisions shall be ren- 
dered. Christ will be the judge of the court, and men 
will be judged by his standards — the moral princi- 
ples which actuated his life, which he enunciated, and 
which his gospel set before all men. The same au- 
thority which shall sit in judgment has issued to men 
commandments and rules of life, of behavior, charac- 
ter and the things which determine destiny. When we 
stand before him, he will judge us by the laws which 
he has laid down for our lives. To this end God has 
appointed him to preside over this final court. ''He 
will judge the world in righteousness by the man 
whom he hath ordained." Acts 17:31. 

5. Rev. 20:12 — "And I saw the dead, the great and 
the small standing 'before the throne; and BOOKS 
WERE OPENED ; and another book was opened which 
is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of 
the things which are written in the books according to 
their works." 

The Bible will undoubtedly be before the Judge. 
Its laws, its precepts, its instructions, its command- 
ments, its entreaties and warnings will face us. But 

135 



TEN FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES. 

moral behavior, even moral speech and secret thought, 
register themselves upon the delicate membrane of the 
sinner's moral nature, and upon the souls of those who 
are affected by his sins. These records will be pro- 
duced at the judgment, something, perhaps, as the song 
of a singer in Paris is preserved in record for the par- 
lor in America. 

The writer would be untrue to the impulses of his 
own heart if he did not entreat the reader of these lines 
to live circumspectly. You, my friend, are a creature 
of eternity. These days of the present life, now so 
fast passing away, are charged with eternal issues. I 
would admonish you that you give largely of your 
thought to the "Word of God, that you exercise yourself 
in prayer, that you cultivate the friendship of the Sav- 
ior, and that you rest all your hope for the judgment 
on his atoning blood. 



136 



INDEX 



Abbott, Dr. Lyman: referred 
to, 85. 

Atonement : and faith in justi- 
fication, 65. 

— meaning of, 66. 

— origin of, 67. 

— not contemplated in the 
Law, 67. 

— but not contrary to the 
Law, 68. 

— sufficient for every sinner, 
but efficient for those only 
who believe, 75. 

Baptism: what it is and its 
meaning, 83. 

— meaning of the Greek word 
baptizo, 84. 

— ^Dr. Lyman Abbott quoted 
on, 85. 

— also Prof. A. T. Robertson, 
86. 

— what it symbolizes, 86-88. 

— Beecher, Dr. John Hall, Dr. 
Hibbard and Dr. Wall 
quoted, 99-100. 

— church membership a pre- 
requisite, 102. 

— baptizo discussed, 84. 

— Beecher, Henry Ward : 
quoted, 99. 

Bible: is the Word of God, 
17. 

— its origin and subject-mat- 
ter, 13-14. 

— "fits every fold of the hu- 
man heart," 15. 

— the miracle of the Book, 16. 

— is its own witness, 17. 

— supreme proof of its divine 
origin, 17. 

— Coleridge quoted, 18. 

— Jesus Christ its central 
figure, 65. 

Calvin, John: referred to, 84. 



Churches, Baptist: their inde- 
pendence, 115. 

— their interdependence, 115. 

— the smallest one is sover- 
eign, 116. 

— cannot bind men's con- 
sciences, 116. 

— cannot bind nor be bound 
by civil nor political power, 
117. 

— such churches may and do 
co-operate, 118. 

Conant, Dr.: referred to, 85. 

Deity: exists in trinity, 21. 

Dods, Dr. Marcus: referred 
to, 84. 

Election: discussed, 25-64. 

— bitter opposition to, 25. 

— the doctrine abused, 27. 

— chief objection to, 30. 

— and Predestination, 44. 

— Calvin, Strong, Boyce 
quoted, 44-45. 

— God's foreknowledge dis- 
cussed, 44-50. 

— the doctrine stated and ar- 
gued, 51. 

Faith: defined, 81. 

— three great spiritual facts, 
81. 

— which are inseparable, 82. 

Foreknowledge: defined, 44. 

— defined by Dr. Boyce, 45. 

— Apostle James quoted on, 
47. 

Holy Spirit: see Spirit, the 
Holy, 20-21. 

Jesus Christ: deity of, 22. 

— the central figure of the 
Bible, 65. 

— his death sacrificial, 75. 

— died as the sinners substi- 
tute, 69. 



137 



INDEX 



Jesus Christ: Continued. 

—not obliged to atone for 
sins of man, 70. 

— his death not simply a trag- 
edy, 71. 

— rose for our justification, 

71. 

Judgment: the future judg- 
ment, 127. 

— to be inferred from pri- 
mary moral facts, as. 

— the existence of God; im- 
mortality of the soul; per- 
sistence of personality; 
and the universality of the 
moral order, 128. 

Justification: what it is. 
71-72. 

— how the sinner is justified. 
73. 

— our righteousness before 
^-od through Jesus Christ, 
72. 

— we are justified freely, 73. 

Justine Martyr: quoted, 96. 

Lamar, L. Q. C : on regenera- 
tion, 18. 

Metomeloai: defined, 78. 

Metanoeo: defined, 78. 

Metanoia: defined, 78. 

Newman, Cardinal: on a liv- 
ing faith, 30. 

Northrup, Dr. G. W.: quoted 
on Election, 30-34. 

Praver: a becoming model of. 
57. 

Regeneration: in its rela- 
tions, 77. 

— tbe word occurs only twice 
in Bible, 77. 

—defined. 77-81. 

Relationship of Baptist 
cbnrches. 115. 

— thpir indenendence, 116. 

— fbpir interdependence, 117- 
118. 



Repentance: defined, 80. 

Robertson, Prof. A. T.: re- 
ferred to, 84. 

Saints: final perseverance of, 
121. 

— preservation and persever- 
ance of, 121. 

— God's eternal purpose inev- 
itable in its operation, 121- 
122. 

— God's means to his ends, 
123. 

— free agency of man recog- 
nized, 123. 

— the doctrine not open to 
charge of immorality, 125. 

Spirit, the Holy: 20-21. 

—offices of, 37. 

Stanley, Dean: referred to, 
85. 

Supper of our Lord: whose 
is it? 89. 

— at its institution he called 
it his own, 90. 

— ^-is followers have no op- 
tion, 91. 

— his gift to his disciples. 92. 

— regeneration necessary to 
partaking, 93. 

— restricted to the baptized, 
94-95. 

— open communion ?n ab- 
surdity, 99. 

— the meaning of the supnerf 
107. 

— the Baptist position, 112-114. 

T>iaver, Prof. : referred to, 84. 

Trinity: discussed, 19-24. 

— deepest of all mysteries, 19. 

— Father, Son and Spirit, 20. 

— Three persons. One Being 
20, 

Whedon, Dr. D. D.: on Free 
Will, 39-40. 



138 



